


Boarded

by Rakuyou_Tenshi (Citrus_Luver)



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: BAMF Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Childbirth, Community: st_xi_kink, Community: st_xi_kink_meme, Established Relationship, M/M, Mpreg, Rescue Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-23
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-16 20:49:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7284235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Citrus_Luver/pseuds/Rakuyou_Tenshi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Enterprise is boarded by hostile aliens, and Bones is the only one left free.  </p>
<p>The catch...</p>
<p>He's just gone into labor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on a prompt from the old Star Trek XI kink meme community on LJ found [ here ](http://st-xi-kink.livejournal.com/5912.html?thread=14409496#t31112984).

“Damnit Jim!” Leonard McCoy’s eyelids snap open. There is a nasty scowl on his face.

The whole room seems to shake for a few moments. The walls, the bed he is on, and even the furniture around him rattle with a huge intensity. For a second, he thinks he’s back in San Francisco.

Which is ridiculous.

He’s not planetside.

It’s a flying bucket of bolts powered by dilithium crystals. And really jolts aren’t uncommon, considering the speed they are traveling through space.

It’s really a miracle that they haven’t exploded into a million tiny pieces.

But he’s still annoyed. He’s annoyed at his captain because these days everything is one hundred percent James Tiberius Kirk’s fault.

Sleep doesn’t come easily these days. Hasn’t for weeks now. Most nights involve a lot of turning and shifting, or as much turning as he’s capable of in his ‘condition’.

He hates that word.

‘Condition’...

He hates that word because he’s positive the phrase was invited by some oblivious fool who doesn’t understand.

He feels like a fucking beached whale.

The room stops shaking just as suddenly as it had started.

“Lights twenty percent,” he calls out because experience tells him it’ll be a while before he can fall back asleep.

The familiar hum of the lights before they turn on doesn’t occur. The lights don’t turn on. The room stays pitch black.

It’s then he realizes they have stopped.

And the Enterprise, a ship of four thousand, is eerily quiet and still.

Silence and darkness…

Something that never happens.

“Damn it Jim,” Leonard scowls again. He pushes back the heavy blankets revealing his heavily swollen forty-one weeks and six days pregnant abdomen.

Yes, he has been counting.

Yes, he's starting to regret letting nature take its course.  

He grunts as he pushes himself upwards. The simple act leaves him sweaty and out of breath. The movement sends a wave of rapid kicks through his swollen and aching abdomen.

It has been particularly active these past few days, which means Leonard hasn’t been getting much sleep. At least not long deep sleep, the sleep he knows he should be getting.

The kind he knows he should be getting before the kid is born.  Because he knows when it's born sleep will definitely not happen.  

Then his own medical crew had the audacity to place him on mandatory bed rest for the last few weeks.

To pour salt over his wounds, Jim had even temporarily promoted M’Benga to acting CMO, so he can’t be forced into duty during crises.

Right now, he basically was about as much power as civilian in terms of the Enterprise's security systems, and it’s been driving him crazy.

Because even though he will never admit it, he is protective of his sick bay. He maintains it a certain way. As much as he knows M’Benga and Chapel won’t trash it, he’s nervous. He hasn’t been away _this_ long ever since they started this five year mission.

He reaches for his comm that he set on the night stand. The simple shift caused the baby to launch into a rage of kicks.

It’s all a matter of real estate, and the simple fact is, it’s a very limited commodity right now.

Normally, babies move less at the end, but not _this_ baby. Of course Jim fucking Kirk’s offspring has to defy the laws of nature and be just as unwilling to give him a break.

He flips the small device open and turns the knob. Instead of the familiar hum, once again Leonard hears nothing.

He’s worried now.

That gut instinct, the one he has sharpened over the years tells him something is wrong.

He swings his legs off the bed and sets his communicator down. He pushes his palms against the bed and uses the counterforce to pull himself up. His huge belly nearly offsets him. It seems to have dropped further while he was asleep. He feels the baby’s hard head wedged deeper into his pelvis.

He cradles his belly and steadies himself.

The movement leaves his winded. He takes deep breaths until the room stops spinning.

He’s too old for this shit.

He waddles in the direction of the dresser. He curses when he stubs his toe against the couch.

“God damnit!”

He hobbles around the couch. He makes sure to check that nothing is on the cushions. The last time he sat down before checking; he had cracked one of Jim’s PADDs.

Of course he blamed it on Jim for leaving it there in the first place.

His toe burns as he flops down. He bends forward to grab it. Of course he misses. He hasn’t even seen them in weeks now.

“God fucking damn it,” he roars.

He feels like he wants to cry.

He feels so goddamn useless these days. He feels all he is an hatchery of this baby.

He does cry.

Really it’s not the first time this pregnancy he has cried. The hormones have ravaged his body. His body had taken a brutal beating when he woke up to find new organs and his and Jim’s offspring growing inside of him.

His tears stop, and his toes hurts a little less. It picks up one of his PADDs containing his medical journals and turns it on.

The low light in the dark room feels blinding.  This time he makes sure to slip his feet into the pair of fuzzy brown slippers he left there earlier.  It was a present from Jim last Christmas and currently the only pair of shoes he has that doesn't hurt his feet.

He pushes off the couch and walks to the dresser. He digs around for an oversized t-shirt and shorts.

Once dressed, he proceeds to the door. Which of course doesn’t slide open as normal. “Computer open the door.”

The computer doesn’t respond.

“God damn it!”

He half wonders if it’s Chapel or M'Benga’s plan to keep him on bed rest, but he’s worked with them for years and knows they would not resort to _that_.

But it doesn’t keep him from still trying.

“Computer, CMO override, McCoy Leonard.”

The computer doesn’t even acknowledge him.

And that…

That worries Leonard.

The silence…

The darkness...

The dead computer…

His hand goes to his belly.

_Jim…_

He knows that something is wrong. This isn’t an elaborate prank.

Something is wrong.

He steels himself. He focuses on his training. He’s thankful, though he’ll never admit it, for the classes Jim insisted he took all those years ago at the Academy.

Jim and his fucking sixth sense...

Like somehow he just _knew_ an aerophobic doctor would actually agree to take a posting on a starship with him.

He scans the dark room to assist the supplies he has and what he doesn’t have.

The first thing he grabs is Jim’s belt that he uses for away missions. It barely fits around his hip.

The baby kicks in protest from the restriction. He strokes his abdomen, thankful the baby is late.

_It’s safe..._

He walks to Jim’s desk. He opens the hidden drawer under the table, inside are a pair of fully charged phasers. He grabs them, makes sure they are on the highest stun setting before tucking them into the holsters on each side. He takes Jim’s PADD and his useless communicator. Both fit in the big pouch.

He checks the contents of the smaller pouch. The one Jim never empties out. There is a breathing apparatus, a small med pouch containing two hypo sprays that Leonard insists he always takes on account of his allergies, and a flashlight. He closes the pouch and takes a deep breath.

“Okay Leonard, you can do this.”

He pushes a chair to the wall. He toes off his slippers. He looks at his boots leaning against the door frame and decides against it. They would be too constricting for his swollen feet.

He rubs his abdomen again before stepping on to the chair. He removes the grate easily from the wall.

A dark passage that looks like it will continue forever awaits him.

“Okay,” he mutters. “Here goes nothing.” Using his hands as a fulcrum, he bounces on the balls of his feet and pushes himself upwards.

It’s true miracle that Leonard manages to push and then pull himself into the space. He lets out a gasp as he sits down on the cold floor.

“Okay Leonard, you can do this.”

He feels a tinge of pain run across his abdomen.

He takes a deep breath.

It is quickly followed by a stronger jab of pain. He grips the side of abdomen, feels it hardening. He takes a deep breath and blows through it.

The pain passes as quickly as the ones he’s been having for days now.

He thinks nothing of it as he pulls out Jim’s PADD. He types in Jim’s password. They are all ridiculous. He’s always amused that nobody has managed to crack them.

A picture of his latest scan appears on the screen, and Leonard shakes his head fondly. He smiles at the picture. Chapel had taken the picture right as the baby was waving. It’s tiny hands and feet that packs a mighty big punch.

He shakes his head before opening up the file he needs, the map of the Enterprise’s Jefferies Tubes. The schematics makes his head hurt. He’s never been good at reading engineering schematics.

He's a doctor damnit, not w engineer.

However, being around a bunch of engineering needs, he understands the basics enough.  Beside that his granddad had insisted he learn to read maps.

_You can't trust technology to much, Lenny boy_ _.  One day it could fail us all._

He finds his location or at least he hopes it’s his location. He traces through the path to…

The bridge.

He should get to the bridge. It’s the central location of the Enterprise…

But what the hell can he do there?

_No…_

He definitely needs to get to the bridge.

It's where Jim is.

Another wave of pain passes through his abdomen.

He clenches his teeth and notes the time at the bottom of the PADD.

He’s not stupid.

_Fuck…_

_Fuck…_

_Fuck…_

 

He sets the PADD down. He grips the underside of his belly and closes his eyes.

“Come on baby, not now,” he mutters, pleading that this isn’t happening, that he’s just paranoid.

That Murphy’s law isn’t true.

But he's too realistic, too grounder, has too many initials behind his name to know it is true.

They aren't normal pregnancy pains and they aren't Braxton Hicks.

They are too constant.

Too frequent...

And fuck...

They hurt a lot.

He opens them when the pain finally passes.

The bridge…

Now he knows it's his only choice.

Once he gets to the bridge. Jim will be there, and everything will be fine.

Just fine...

He tucks the PADD back the pouch. He gets on his hands and knees and starts the long crawl to the bridge.

This isn’t the first time he’s been in the tubes. Jim likes to brode in them, to hear the low hum of the engines and the almost insusceptible rattle of the Enterprise’s floorboards when the duties as captain become too much.

They have spent many nights in these tubes just laying on the floorboards and looking up at the many intricate bundles of wires.

It’s just he hasn't been in them since he started showing.

As a result it takes Leonard a few minutes to realize the eery silence of it all.

The tubes are silent.

The entire Enterprise is silent as if she is just a piece of floating debris out in the middle of infinity.

_Air…_

He stops himself from going into blind terror at the last second.

He remembers what Jim told him all those years ago, during their first training mission, when he still feared the black.

_As long as the hull isn’t breached, the ships are designed to have enough air to sustain the crew for a few hours even if her life support systems fail._

It won’t take him nearly that long to reach the bridge. There is probably just a fault in engineering. He’s probably just paranoid.

Hell, by the time he gets there Scotty probably will already have to fixed.

He can just imagine the Scotsman now, running around in engineering, throwing a fit that the Enterprise shut down on him.

He crawls a few more paces before his abdomen seizes again.

He sits on his legs and pants through them. “Come on, baby, not now,” he whispers to the walls.

After a few more turns, a few more mis turns, some vertical and diagonal movement...

He hates those..

And more waves of pain in his abdomen…

He refuses to use the ‘c’ word.

He finally makes it over the bridge. He knows because he has been here before.

He crawls to the opening that overlooks the central consoles.

He freezes when he hears voices.

Unfamiliar voices…

Alien voices…

It’s not standard.

The universal translator is down.

That means…

He crawls on his hands and knees to the opening.

Slowly...

Painfully slow...

He peers over the edge.

His blood runs cold.

It’s not one, or two…

It’s fucking eight of them…

Eight aliens…

Big, muscular, and angry...

On the bridge…

Leonard’s eyes flash quickly around the room. The consoles are all dark. The bridge is eerily quiet and minus the aliens…

Empty.

The bridge crew isn’t there…

Jim isn’t there…

And he’s suddenly reminded of an earlier time…

Of a different Enterprise…

He knows…

He knows enough to realize what has happened.

They have been boarded…

He pulls himself up.

He realizes then.

Even though he doesn’t understand a word they are saying. The nature of the way they are conversing…

The ease…

One of them sits down on Jim's chair as if he owns it...

As if they have already won...

The way they are acting…

It means...

That horrible, sinking feeling...

He's probably the only one free.

The only one who can save them…

And then…

Just then...

He hears a pop.

He feels his shorts and then his thighs become soaked.  It starts as a slow drizzle then a mass onslaught of water…

His eyes widen. He doesn’t dare to move as the water pools around him and slowly, slowly flows to the grate.

His heart nearly stops with a drop goes over.

And another…

And another…

And another...

He hears movement below him.

_Fuck…_

He drops onto his hands and knees and crawls away as fast as he can.

He has to get away as fast as possible.

The liquid mess trails after him.  From his hands and knees smearing it and from the liquid gushing out of him.

Like a fucking trail of bread crumbs.

He rounds the first corner…

Just as he hears the grate slide open...


	2. Chapter 2

It’s the longest moment of his life.

He’s in a half crouch, half squat as he waits. He waits with bated breath.

His whole body freezes. He hears his heart thumping so hard. It vibrates through his ears. He doesn’t understand how nobody else hears it, how it alone hasn’t given him alway.

He hears the grate fall with a loud thump, followed by a beam of light.

The beam reflects against the walls. It curves towards him. He moves his feet. His hand goes to the belt, towards Jim’s phasers. He fumbles around.

His hand is too wet from sweat that it slips over the button.

He hears the alien tongue, which slides to standard.

“Must be a burst pipe. Old bucket of bolts. Boss said he got everyone.”

He looks down at the side. He must have accidentally turned his communicator on.

_Old bucket of bolts…_

He waits as the grate slides close, and the light disappears. He welcomes the darkness now.

He waits another minute more before letting out his breath. He falls to his knees and rests on his ankles. He rests his hand on his hard abdomen.

He’s safe.

The baby is safe.

He didn’t get caught.

But...

He knows he didn’t just wet himself.

It was definitely his water.

Which means he’s definitely in labor.

_Okay, breath Leonard._

_His contractions…_

He thinks it. He thinks the accursed ‘c’ word.

They are contractions.

But they are still far enough apart.

And first babies…

First babies can take twenty four hours sometimes.

Twenty four hours…

Of course, he knows he probably won’t have twenty four hours…

He’s already wasted time getting here.

His mind races to Jim and what the alien had said.

_Boss said he got them all._

That means…

That means they are alive…

They have to be alive. He doesn’t even consider the alternate.

Somewhere…

He just has to figure out where.

This isn’t the first time he’s been separated from Jim, and he knows it surely won’t be the last.

But first…

He has to get away from here.

He waits as the last of his water trickles down his leg.

At least it’s clear.

He smears some on his index finger and smells it.

And odorless.

He relaxes. He can feel the baby moving.

One less thing to worry about...

Then he thinks…

Where can he go…

Engineering comes to mind first.

If he thinks of the Enterprise as a human body, while the bridge is like her brain, engineering is definitely her heart.

But engineering is a mess of wires and conduits…

And who is he kidding…

He doesn’t know anything about engineering.

Not like sick bay…

Sick bay…

There isn’t much he can do there…

But…

There is one of him and at least eight of them…

He smiles. It’s the first smile on his face since he woke up. Since this all started.

He uses Jim’s PADD to find the path to sick bay. He realizes he’s reading the schematics faster now. He charts his path.

He picks the main sickbay. It’s bigger, in a more central location of the Enterprise, and from the schematics and his own memory has the most escape points. It’s also the one he’s spent the most time in.

He makes less errors this time as he goes through the tubes. Down the long ladders and through the diagonal turns.

The contractions get stronger. He feels each angry burn as his muscles seize together.

It’s another reason he needs to get to sick bay.

He finally reaches it. He had almost gone past it in his haste.

He checks to makes sure it's clear before he drops himself through. He lands on the pads of his feet.

It was only due to Jim’s lessons over the years that he doesn’t twist his ankles from the fall. Jim made sure he learned how to safety fall and land.

It’s his realm.

Like the bridge, it’s also empty. It’s also stone quiet and dark.

He turns on his flashlight and scans the room.

However unlike the bridge, it looks like a massive struggle had occurred here. There are biobeds, tables and chairs overturned. All the cabinets are open, and most of the bottles are either shattered on the ground with its contents on the ground or leaking onto the floor.

He’s angry.

It’ll take days to clean up this mess. It’ll be a nightmare to reorder all the supplies and get them sent this far into deep space.

And then all the paperwork...

Of course he’ll have to do it…

Because as much as he trusts his team, he doesn’t trust them to organize his med bay. He has a pattern and a method to where each bottle, each instrument needs to go.

It’s something his father had imparted on him.

_When you’re chief doctor, Len, make sure you know where all your tools are. In an emergency, it could be the difference between life or death._

He’s thankful for that now as another contraction hits him. He braces himself against an overturned biobed.

He counts the drips of liquid that rolls onto the floor.

It hurts so bad.

_God…_

His eyes water.

When his mind clears again and the pain slips away, he thinks.

He can’t risk attempting to turn on a biobed. He’s not even sure any of them will work, but survival 101, one of the many classes Jim insisted he take back at the Academy, did teach him to know oneself.

He needs to know his condition.

How far along he is.

He can’t risk another accident like what happened with his water. It’s a miracle the aliens didn’t find him at that moment.

He doubts he’ll be as lucky the next time.

The next best thing is a medical tricorder. He walks to the cabinet. His heart sinks. All ten of them are broken. Some snapped in half, and the rest have cracks down the center.

_Fuck…_

He’s thankful his father insisted he learned to do checks without a tricorder. Unlike most doctors, he know how to perform physicals without a tricorder.

He disinfects his hands up to his elbows and grabs a pair of gloves. At least they have been left undisturbed.

He rests a foot on a chair and drops his soaked shorts. He bends over and slips his index finger and middle finger inside. He finds his cervix, measures it and pulls out.

He’s barely past four centimeters.

A blessing and a nightmare at the same time…

He pulls off the gloves.

He wishes he could measure the baby’s heart rate, but for now, he’ll have to assume it’s okay. It’s moving, which is a good sign.

He cleans off the dried amniotic fluid from his legs; however his shorts are beyond hope.

He’s alone. His mama would be rolling in her grave if she knew. But he doesn’t have the time.

He dumps them onto an overturned biobed and waddles away.

Now…

Now he has to get to work.

First the major, glaring problem…

The aliens on the ship…

There are eight of them, at least, and one of him…

And even with his self defense training, in his condition, there is no way he can risk using it. He has Jim’s phasers, but even to put it politely, he’s a terrible shooter.

Jim always says he’s scarier wielding hypos…

And that…

Leonard smiles.

Is his plan.

He waddles to the door.

Or…

What used to be the door. The sliding mechanism is broken. It’s hanging freely. Leonard shakes his head. He peers outside into the corridor.

It’s clear.

It’s silent and dark.

He doesn’t know how long that will last.

He has to work fast.

He turns around and heads for the back room. It’s the smallest research lab, but for the items he needs it’s sufficient.

Unlike sick bay, this room looks untouched.

He doesn’t dwell it on. He’s simply thankful.

He locates eight medium size bottles and their matching corks. He sets them on the table.

He turns and waddles back outside to his cabinets of medicine. He pushes aside the broken containers carefully. As he reaches for the containers he needs his abdomen seizes again.

_Fuck…_

He sees stars. He moans, sliding to the floor.

“God damnit,” he curses. He cradles his abdomen. He counts the shards of glass sprinkled on the counter to distract himself from the pain.

It feels eternal.

Forever….

He takes deep breathes. His head feels like it's spinning. He ceases his swollen abdomen. He feels the tiny kicks against his palm.

He checks his pulse. It’s racing.

He should have suspected this. He’s tired. He’s dehydrated. He’s hungry. He needs food, or he can’t keep this up.

He pulls himself up. His belly hangs so low, like the baby will drop right out of him. Of course he won’t be that lucky.

He waddles to his office. The door is closed. He steels himself for what he’ll find. If he can even get inside.

It’s not locked. It doesn’t slide open by itself. He strains to slide the door open using the tiny crack. It’s dark and quiet like the rest of the ship.

It has been left undisturbed. He waddles to his desk. He pulls open the bottom drawer where he has stashed a drawer full of snacks.

He pulls out a few packages, stores some into Jim’s belt, then grabs a package of rehydrated liquids before sliding the drawer shut. He breaks open one of the packages and bites into it. He immediately feels better afterwards.

The next contraction even feels a little more bearable. He ceases his abdomen. It’s hard and large…

He doesn’t have time to think about that…

About the baby…

About Jim…

Jim…

He doesn’t even know what Jim is thinking. How he is. If Jim is launching his own counterattack, knowing Jim, his mind is probably racing.

He waddles back outside.

To the cabinet full of tranquilizers, it’s strangely been undisturbed. He collects the vials he needs.

His hand pauses on the pain relief.

He pulls back.

It takes all his will power to not pick one up.

He can’t.

He can’t risk falling asleep.

He can’t risk going into a drug induced high.

He needs his mind.

He definitely hadn’t planned on a natural birth. In fact natural had been the farthest thing from his mind, but it’s where he is now.

The final components he needs he scavenges from a bio-bed. The one he deems the least useable.

Then he gets to work.

He curses the world. He counts the fumes that bubble from his burner. He strains his ears to make sure the aliens aren’t nearby.

After too long have past, after riding through a string of contractions, Leonard has made eight tranquilizer canisters. They aren’t as nice as the ones Spock and Scotty had made so long ago, but damnit he’s doctor not an engineer.

He places them carefully into a medical sachet. He lines the sides with medical bandages. Once he’s satisfied none will accidentally break, he loops the bag over his shoulder blade.

“Time to go huntin’.” He mutters.

He steps out of med bay and into the hallways. It seems the aliens have managed to turn on the backup generators. The hallways are now lit with a low red glow. Only the lights are on. The consoles are still dead. He still taps one to check.

He’s halfway to engineering when he hears it. The sound of another soul…

His pulse races.

His abdomen contracts at the same moment, painful and strong. For a moment he doesn’t care. He just wants pain meds.

Then Jim’s bright blue eyes flashes into his mind.

Jim would never give up.

“Damn it Leonard,” he curses to himself.

He backs into a closet. He loses his footing and tumbles backwards into a laundry hamper. He lands on his back. He sees stars for a moment.

The bottles rattle for a second.

He holds his breath. They stop rattling. He’s still awake.

He sees the alien between the uniforms.

It’s angry and mean.

It stops millimeters from him.

Leonard can almost smell it. A horrible foul smell that makes his stomach turn.

He watches as it pulls out a device. It’s small and spherical. There is a tiny ball in the center that twirls around and around. Leonard reaches for his bag. He fumbles around until he feels the cold glass.

_You can do it Leonard._

He stalls for half a millisecond when the alien lets out a rush of words. Words he can’t understand.

It’s then he realizes he left his communicator behind.

It’s angry and loud.

It’s alien.

They are communicating with each other.

He tightens his fingers over the glass bottle. The alien steps forwards.

Leonard holds his breath. The alien picks up one of the uniforms. It holds it to his face. Smells it. Leonard freezes. It balks further into the device then laughs.

At least Leonard thinks it’s laughter.

It pulls out a pair of black slacks. It’s so close to Leonard’s right foot he’s afraid the alien will notice him.

He doesn’t dare to move.

His fingers tighten around the bottle.

The alien turns around.

He leans against the left side.

The left side…

Leonard’s eyes widen…

He freezes as he feels the ground give out. His stomach pitches upwards. He grabs his belly as he tumbles downward.

Down and down and down…

He rolls and twists through the chute…

It gets bigger than smaller…

For a second he’s almost afraid he won’t fit. He hugs his belly tight, protecting it from the walls. The baby kicks up a storm. It’s obviously annoyed by the joy ride it's experiencing.

Leonard can empathize. He feels sick. He’s never been a fan of roller coasters, and that is exactly what this feels like.

His abdomen contacts. He would be cursing out the world if he didn’t feel like the entire contents of his stomach wanted to come on.

When it finally stops, he finds himself in a depths of the Enterprise. It’s a section he has never been before.

It’s pitch black and stone silent.

He crawls out of the entanglement of dirty laundry. He fumbles for his light.

He’s in the laundry room. His light shines against a row of clean clothes. He chooses a pair of loose recreation slacks from the pile.

He feels better now.

Well, as well as he’s supposed to feel.

It takes him a while to find the door. Of course it doesn’t open.

“Great.” Leonard mutters.

This day is getting worst.

He finds himself back where he started. The opening with a few sheets hanging out of the opening. He shines the light inside.

“You got to kidding me,” he mutters to himself.

He hates his plan, but it’s his only plan. He pulls the loose sheets out of the chute and climbs in. He stands up and sets his hands on the sides.

He waits for his next contraction then the next.

Five minutes apart he counts.

They are getting closer. It means he has five minutes to make it to the horizontal bit.

It’s not that far. He turns off the light. He spreads his feet to the sides and pulls and pushes himself upwards.

He gets halfway when he feels another contraction.

“Fuck!”

He roars.

He doesn’t dare lose his traction. His progress.

He feels himself slipping when it finally passes. He makes it to the ledge. He pulls himself up as another contraction hits. He closes his eyes. He counts and breaths.

He knows he won’t lost long.

This baby is coming.

When he opens his eyes, he’s lying down on his side. He cradles his belly. He sees the ident in the wall.

He pushes on it. It gives away.

He climbs out of the chute.

He hears the alien’s roar before he sees it. One hand instinctively goes around his swollen abdomen while his other reaches for one of his tranquilizers.

It comes charging at him.

It’s big and angry.

And so fucking ugly…

It pulls out its weapon.

It looks like a pistol.

His breath stills. His hands go to glass bottles..

It’s still charging.

It’s charging…

Leonard has never had the best reaction speed. Maybe it’s pregnancy hormones, his parental instincts, half of Jim’s DNA growing inside of him, whatever it is he pulls the string then throws one of the bottles.

The alien stops as the bottle coming hurling towards it.

Fear of the unknown…

The hisses and fizzles as it lands millimeters from its feet.

It’s enough time for Leonard to draw Jim’s phaser and he shots, again and again.

He shots even though he doesn’t have it. His engineering and science skills prove their worth when the alien slumps backwards. Leonard doesn’t wait a beat as he waddles forwards.

Because even at his fastest he’s still painfully slow.

As he nears the alien from the side of his vision he sees a flicker of a figure, of motion. He turns on his heels. He raises the first thing his hand pull out from Jim’s belt….

The figure steps out of the shadows...


	3. Chapter 3

“Keenser!”  Leonard feels his heart rate slow down.  “Damnit man!  You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

Like always, Keenser’s deep black pearls flicker rapidly.  

He lowers the hypo in his hand.  He does feel particularly ridiculous right about now, not that he would ever admit to it.

“What you doing here?”

Keenser’ eyes flicker again.

_Of bloody course…_

Of all the crew that could still be here, it has to be Keenser.  Scotty’s second in command, the little alien that never talks, even though both Scotty and Jim claim he’s hilarious.

“Help me tie him up before he wakes up.”  Leonard throws his head back.

He knows they should hide it somewhere.  Except Leonard is in no condition to move the alien and he knows Keenser can't do it himself.

They have to leave it for now.

Keenser’s eyes flicker again before he steps forward.  As Leonard proceeds to lower himself down, he feels Keenser’s hand on his arm.  He shakes his head, points to himself and then the alien.  Leonard stops.

At least he’s polite.  

He stands up.  He breaths out a deep breath and leans against the wall as his abdomen contracts again.

He rubs it as he watches Keenser tie up the alien.

He doesn’t notice Leonard is in pain.

Which is good…

He wants to keep it that way.

Keenser stands up.  He looks at him.  His eyes flicker then he abruptly turns and walks away.

“Hey!”  Leonard calls out.

“Damnit!”  He curses.  

His contraction passes.  

He waddles forward.  He stops near the alien who is snoring away.  Leonard bends down.  He touches its skin.  It’s slimy and wet.  Leonard almost pulls back.  He hadn’t expected that.  He continues to rummage through its suit.  It feels like rubber.  He finds it finally; the sphere the aliens have been using for communication.  He pockets it in Jim’s belt.  He also takes the pistol.

He finds Keenser further ahead.

“Slow down will you.  We can’t all go that fast.”

Keenser does slow down, but he doesn’t stop.

Leonard lets out a rain of curses as he waddles forward.

They go down a few flights of stairs to the lower levels of engineering.

He hadn’t realized he had ended up in engineering until that moment.

It’s quiet.  It’s silent.

They pass the warp core.  

It’s unnerving how silent it is.

They pass some consoles and machines, he can’t even begin to comprehend their functions.

“Where you taking us?”  Leonard curses out.  He feels too open, too exposed.  There is no way the aliens won’t come when the one he just knocked out doesn’t report in.

Keenser stops in front of a door, a door that blends in so well with the wall Leonard isn’t sure he has ever seen it before.

Keenser’s eyes flicker.  He looks at Leonard and back at the door.

“You want me to open it?”

Keenser nods.

“Sure, whatever,” Leonard sighs.  

Not like he has anything better to do.

He steps forward.

There is a tiny crack.  

And voices…

He hears voices…

It’s dark.

He pulls out his flashlight and shines it inside.

His breath catches.

It’s the kids…

Well…

They aren’t kids.

No more than Chekov was when they first met.

It’s the kids Starfleet had assigned to them on the ‘inspire the new generation of cadets’ initiative that Starfleet started.  Starfleet’s latest plan to increase recruitment numbers.

Leonard thinks it's smart parents are discouraging their kids from joining.  He’s crazy for joining.  They all are.

It’s darkness, silence, disease and danger out here.

Yet he wouldn’t trade it for the world.

He rubs his abdomen.  He feels the baby kicking up a storm.  It wants to be born.  

Hours ago that was all Leonard wanted.

Now, all he wants is to keep the baby inside where it’s safe.  He wishes he could will it to stay inside.

They had been assigned five students, five high school students.

Leonard hasn’t interacted much with them since they joined after he had gotten pregnant.  He hears more about them from Jim.

“Hey,” he calls out.

The kids look up.

They look so scared, so terrified.

He doesn’t blame them.

He’s half minded to just leave them there.  They might be safer, but…

There are seven aliens and now counting him and Keenser…

With the five kids they would finally be on even ground with the aliens…

Well…

Not really but at least the numbers line up, and he and Keenser are both familiar with the Enterprise’s layout.

Besides there is a feeling inside of him, aside from the pain, that these kids can help.  There was a reason Starfleet chose them.

They are probably little geniuses.

“I’m going to get you out.  Don’t panic.”

He steps back and looks at Keenser.  His eyes flicker towards Leonard’s belt where Jim’s phasers are.

_Oh fuck._

He pulls one out.  Looks at it.

They can’t stay here.

It’s been too long.

“Here goes nothing.”

He fires…

The second time today…

_Damnit Jim, I’m a doctor not a gunslinger._

And slowly, ever so slowly, he burns a hole into the door.  It falls inward before either he or Keenser can react.  Keenser is already crawling through the space before Leonard can stop him.

He tucks the phaser back into the belt and follows.  It’s a tiny crawl space.  With his statue, he’s almost on his stomach.  Leonard doesn’t even know what this room is for.

It’s also deeper than he thought.

He crawls over a beam and under another before he reaches the children.  

He scans them quickly with his eyes for injures.  

His eyes fall on one of the kids.

A boy…

Leonard can tell he’s hurt, and it’s bad.  Bad because they aren’t anywhere close to sick bay.  Bad because this room is unsanitary.

He’s being cradled by one of the two girls, while another boy is applying pressure to his wound.

Their eyes are wide.

They look scared.

The boy whimpers.  He looks to be in pain.

“Let me see.  I’m a doctor.” He barks.

The children’s eyes widen.  They flinch backwards, away from him.

“I won’t hurt you,” he says, softer this time.  He even puts on a smile.  “Will you let me see?”

The boy looks at him.  Leonard recognizes that look. Leonard smiles again. The boy finally nods. The other boy, Leonard guesses is his friend, finally let’s go.  Leonard see a large wound.  The old blood has turned brown, and new blood is now seeping out again.

He’s thankful that it hasn’t hit any major organs.  Thankful that he is human.

He doesn’t have any medical supplies with him, anything that can treat the wound properly.

“Keep applying pressure.”  He barks again.  The boy finches but complies.  He picks up Jim’s phaser again, the one he used to burn a hole through the door.

He’ll have to remember to set it back to stun.  He looks around the room.  He finds a suitable metal rod.  He then tears off a long strip of cloth from his shirt.  

Compared to everyone else, his clothes are the most sanitary,  He hands it to one of the girls.  She takes it.  Her hands are shaking.

Leonard feels bad for these kids.  

“Okay kid, I ain’t gonna to lie.  This is going to hurt.”

The boy nods.  He has guts at least.  Leonard will give him that.  He wonders if it’s a trait that Starfleet screens for.  He reminds him of Jim.

_Jim…_

He can’t go there.

His abdomen contracts.  His eyes water.  The children look at him with wide eyes.  

They give him the strength to not double over.  They are getting worse and more frequent.  He doesn’t have a clock, but he knows hours have past.

It passes like all the others.

He grips his tricorder.  He heats up the metal rod.  It reminds him strangely of a different time, a different place.  Another time when the Enterprise had been raided…

He sets those thoughts aside.  When he’s satisfied, he turns to the boy.  His eyes are wide.  He looks from Leonard to the metal rod.

“Sorry.”

It’s all he can say.  The other children back away except for one.  “Hold him down.”  

He nods.  His eyes are wide.

“On three then.”

The boy nods.

“One…”

The boy closes his eyes.

“Two…”

At that moment, Leonard places the metal rod on the boy’s wound.  He smells the burning flesh.  The boy screams.  He screams so loud.  Leonard swears he’ll alert the aliens.  

He stops when the last boy, a Vulcan boy, reaches down and pinches the side of his neck.  Leonard recognizes it immediately as the Vulcan nerve pinch.  

“I am sorry.  I should have done that sooner,” the boy speaks.

Leonard doesn’t say anything.  He takes the cloth and ties it around the wound.  It’s no longer bleeding.

He glances at the other four children.  Besides the Vulcan boy, the two human children, a boy and a girl, the final girl is a Betazoid.

They aren’t hurt minus a few scrapes and cuts.

He wonders how much they know.  He wonders how they ended up here in this room.

“We can’t stay here.  It’s not safe.”  He barks.  He turns around to crawl out.

He thinks about the alien that is still tied up.

“We can get to the battle bridge from here.”  

Leonard stops.  He already knows he’s going to hate what comes next.  “Mr. Scott said it can run on auxiliary power.  He locked it down before they got to us.”

Leonard recognizes it as a chance.  Scotty had given them a chance. 

“We can use it to fight back.”

Leonard raises an eyebrow.  He doubts any of these kids have ever manned a weapon.  He looks at Keenser who has been silent throughout all of this.  He doubts Keenser has either.

“We’ll use it to find the crew.”  Leonard corrects.

She almost looks disappointed.

Leonard finds that concerning. 

“And Taylor?”

The boy, the one that had applying pressure asks.  He reminds Leonard of Jim.  All these kids do.

They are all too young and forced to grow up too quickly.  He strokes his abdomen where his baby is trying to enter into this world.

“We’ll bring him with us.”

The boy nods.

It turns out the closet isn’t actually a closet by a passageway.  He reminds himself to ask Jim about this when all of this is over.

 

XXXXXXXXX

 

He’s glad when he gets off his hands and knees. He’s sure being in that position has accelerated his labor. 

He’s running out of excuses for why he needs to stop. The contractions are getting longer, harder to bear, and more frequent.  His belly is almost a near constant hard ball.

The battle bridge is basked in a red glow.  However unlike the rest of the Enterprise, its consoles aren’t dead.

The logo of Starfleet spins around and around.  

It’s the first sign of hope, that they can get through this since all of this started.

The boy sets Taylor down in a chair.  His fingers fly across the panel.

_Little geniuses…_

Leonard thinks warily.

He leans heavily against the console.  He rests his belly on the table.  He catches the Betazed girl give him a worried glance.  Leonard pulls on a scowl, and she quickly looks away frightened.

He can’t have them finding out.  

“Damn it!” The boy curses.

He slams his fist of the screen.  Keenser’s eyeballs flicker rapidly.  He looks up from from his own console.

“What?”  One of the other kids asks.

“They seemed to have damaged the relays to the sensors.  We can’t pick up any signals.”

One of the girls speaks up.  “We could bypass the relay.”

The boy’s eyes light up.  “That might work.  We could route it directly to the sensors.”

“Hold on.”  Leonard barks out.

He’s not good with engineering terms, but he does know where the sensors are.

“That would require space walking.”

“Yes.”

“I can do it.”  The boy, the one that reminds him too much of Jim, states.  “With the little alien.”

Keenser glares at the boy.  At least Leonard thinks he’s glaring.

“In a pig’s eye!”  Leonard snaps.  He has enough sense to not let any of these kids do that.  They aren’t Starfleet.  “None of you are going out there.”

“But Doctor…”

“Now you listen.”  Leonard waddles over to the boy. He wishes he could walk more properly.  “This isn’t up for debate.  The only people going out there on this space walk is me and Keenser.”

“Doctor.”

He closes his mouth when Leonard glares at him again.

He looks at Keenser whose eyes are flickering again.  Keenser could technically do it himself.  He’s that good.  He isn’t Scotty’s second for nothing, but he also knows all the dangers space brings.  He can’t let Keenser go out there alone.

“I’ll do it.”  He states again in that leaves no room for discussion voice.  “I’ll go with him.”  Because has been be trained for space walks.  Jim made sure of _that_ when they were at the Academy.  

Keenser walks by and heads straight for the closet.  He returns with two space suits.  He hands one to Leonard.  

Leonard takes it.

The him reflecting back from the helmet looks back at him.  He steels himself.  He can do this.  He looks up.  “Okay let’s get this over with.”

The kids nod.  They know enough to not argue now.  He looks at Taylor.  The boy is pale.  He looks at his abdomen.  He thinks of Jim, the baby and everyone else.

He can do this.  He walks back to where Keenser got the suits to change. He sets the helmet down and steps through the suit.

It’s heavy.

As he gets it part way up, his abdomen contracts again.

He bites down on his lips.  His hands hit the walls.  He spreads out his legs and rolls his hips.

_Fuck…_

When it passes, he slides to the floor.  He takes deep breaths.

_Damn…_

They are getting worse.  

They are getting stronger, longer and more frequent.  He knows enough to recognize that he’s definitely in active labor now.

He doesn’t want to think about what is to come.

“Doctor.”  

Leonard looks up.  His brow is stained with sweat.  

It’s the Betazoid girl.

“Doctor, you’re in pain.”

“What you talking about?”  Leonard grouses.  He attempts to stand up.

He sees her hesitation.  He wonders if she will keep going.

“I can feel it.”

_Of course…_

She can sense his pain.

He had forgotten they were telepathic.

Her eyes widen.  She backs up.

She looks ready to run.  Leonard knows he has to stop her.  He grabs her arm. He strains for her name.

“Reena.”

Her eyes are wide.

“Damnit,” he curses, then drops his scowl.  “Listen.  You can’t tell them.”

Her eyes widen more.

“Them knowing… Knowing about it ain’t going to change anything.  It’s happening.  It’s natural.  We got to save the crew, our captain.  That’s the goal, right?”

She hesitates for a moment then nods.

“Good girl, now you got a job to do, and I got mine.  He looks at the helmet and the evac suit that’s pooling around his legs.”

She nods again.

Leonard watches as she disappears.  He closes his eyes as another contraction hits him.  

He isn’t a fool to know that it isn’t a sign of things picking up, but a sign that he’s reaching the end.

He bits his lip to keep from screaming. He counts to one hundred and recites the periodic table.  He loses his train of thought at iron.  He can’t.  He doesn’t know if he can do this.  Tears appear in his eyes.  He clenches his fist.  He kicks his legs out and then pulls them back in.  Nothing helps as the contraction reaches its peak.  He lets out a strangled cry.

Then it passes.

He feels a hand touch his arm.  He thinks it’s Reena again.  When he opens his eyes, instead he finds Keenser standing in front of him.  He’s already change.  

He’s holding a medical tricorder.  His eyes flicker.  Leonard takes it.  He shuts the face mask of his helmet and disappears before he can thank him.

He looks at it.  His hands shake.  

“Damnit,” he curses.

He turns the dial before scanning his abdomen.  The tricorder beeps.  He looks at the screen.  His heart drops.

He’s at the cusp of seven centimeters.

He sets the tricorder down before pulling up the suit.  It molds to fit his round belly.  He takes a deep breath before picking up the helmet.

He hates spacewalks.

He’s only done it a handful of times in his lifetime, and they had all been in controlled setting.  All had been with Jim...

The sense of weightlessness…

The forever darkness of space fills his senses.

He finds Keenser by the airlock door.  The kids are huddled around one of the consoles.  He takes the other harness clip and clips it to his suit.

He looks at Keenser.   The little alien, quiet and silent, only looks ahead.  Leonard closes his eyes as another contraction grips him.  

“Doctor?”

He hears the kids through his earpiece.

He checks his harness one more time.  His lifeline…

“Open the door…”

He holds his curse.

The door opens.  The alarm doesn’t sound.  It’s silence and darkness.  Keenser steps out.  Leonard watches as he disappears over the side.

Leonard takes a deep breath before following.  He finds Keenser frozen not far from the door.

He wants to curse when Keenser touches his arm.  He looks at him, confused.  He points.  Leonard’s gaze follows.

His eyes widens at what he sees.  

His heart drops...


	4. Chapter 4

“Angels and ministers of grace, defend us.”

He doesn’t need any guesses nor does he have any doubts.  It is massive.  He has only seen a ship this large years ago, and back then it had not ended well.

“We got to get that sensor working.”

Keenser’s eyes flicker.  He nods.

He feels the ship looming overhead.  Like a black hole peering down at them, ready to suck them in.

He follows Keenser.  

The Enterprise is quiet and dark.  Her lights have dimmed.  She is so silent it's haunting.

It reminds Leonard of those words he once said to Jim, about the darkness and silence of space.

It is contrasted by the patches of red where the emergency lights have shined through.

_The darkness and silence..._

It’s cold.

He takes a deep breath.

One tiny crack, and it’s over.

His hand touches his abdomen.  Through the thick material he can’t feel anything.

They hop forward.  He follows Keenser who is quick and agile on his feet, not like Leonard.

Keenser knows how much pressure to give to propel himself forward.

Jim had once told him it was intuition.

Back then he had grumbled that he was a doctor damnit not a space explorer.

Jim had laughed and looked at him fondly.

He hadn’t realized just how large the Enterprise is.

They finally reach the sensors.

They are tiny little devices.  They are blinking as if welcoming them.

It’s a good sign.

“Finally,” he sets the bag of tools down.  Keenser sets his own down.

Keenser taps the device closer to him with his screwdriver.

Leonard nods.

As he reaches for his screwdriver, his abdomen contracts.  His hand wobbles.  He fumbles.  He almost loses his footing.

He can’t think.

He can’t compute anything but the pain.

He shuts his eyes.

It feels like he’s on fire.  

Everything feels like it's on fire.

Then it passes...

Little all the others...

He gasps.

Keenser stands over him.

He gives him a hand.

Leonard takes it to hoist himself upwards.

They work fast.  Leonard copies everything that Keenser does.  This isn’t the first time he has to use his engineering skills, or lack there of.

If anyone else had been there, if Jim had been there, he would have groused that ‘he’s doctor, dammit, not a engineer.”  But Jim isn’t here, and that really is the problem of it all.

He’s sure pretty Keenser suspects something is wrong when Leonard is forced to stop everything three minutes.  He can’t hide the pain anymore.  It comes, and it rolls through him. Like a hurricane, like a train, it tears through him.  It takes everything he has to not scream.

He feels like he’s caked in sweat when they finally, finally finish.  He gets the confirmation from one of the kids.

He breathes out a sigh of relief.  They walk back, Leonard makes sure to not look at the imposing black vessel above them.

He finds the kids crowding around a console when they arrive.

They look up and smile when they see him and Keenser return.

“It worked?”  He asks again.

The boy, the one that knows too much, reminds him too much of Jim, nods.  “There,” the human girl points out.  

Leonard pulls off his helmet and waddles forward.  He feels so much pressure as he walks now that gravity has increased.  He eyes the tricorder that Keenser that given him.  It’s laying next to Taylor.  The boy looks worse now.  He seems to have soaked through another layer.

Leonard doesn’t need the kids to point it out for him.  The console lights up like a fucking Christmas tree.  

He immediately realizes the crew has been split up.  There are small and large conglomerations.  He can’t even begin to guess which one contains Jim.  He also knows it’ll be impossible to get to them all without being seen.

Then there is a matter of time.

He knows he’s just a couple of hours away from giving birth.  Before he’ll have to give in to the pain.  Before the pain is on top of each other. 

“Can’t we get a better resolution?” One of the kids asks.  The same question he has on his tongue.

The human boy, the boy that reminds him too much of Jim, Gavin, his name is Gavin, shakes his head.  “There is some cloak around the ship.  We’re lucky we have this much.”

“So transporters are out?” The girl, Lucy, asks.  

He sees Keenser’s eyes flickering.  He is clearly thinking of something.  Leonard wishes he would speak.  He’s probably laughing at them now.

He looks up at Leonard.  His eyes flicker before he shakes his head.  

“They aren’t.”

The kids look at him, but he’s looking at Keenser.  There is a reason he is Scotty’s second in command.  He places his fists together and grounds one against the other.  

“They aren’t.  I mean they can work.  Something is just jamming the signal.  The same reason the resolution for the sensors are so off.”

“But the aliens broke the transporters.”  Gavin rolls his eyes.

“And Keenser can fix it…”

“While we turn off the jamming device,” Lucy smiles.

Leonard looks up.  He opens his mouth to protest that nobody but him is going over there.

That it is too dangerous.

“It’s huge doctor.  You can’t do it alone,” Reena finally speaks up.  Leonard can read the rest of her thoughts.

_Because you’re in labor…_

_Because it can come at any point now..._

She hasn’t told them though.  Leonard can deduce that much.

“Fine. Keenser and…”

“I’ll stay and help.”  Reena volunteers.

“Okay.”

The rest of the kids nods.

Leonard taps at the screen.  The blips of life signs.  Without turning off the cloak it'a impossible to tell which blips are friend or foe.  He strains to count the number of blips.

He wishes he knew which one was Jim.  Because Jim would have a plan, he always has a plan.

_Jim…_

The thought of Jim makes him sad and similarly angry.

That Jim isn’t here.

That Jim might miss their child’s birth because Leonard knows it’s going to happen.  He just hopes it’s later and not on an alien ship.

“Any ideas of where the jamming device would be?”

He looks at the kids.

After this is all over, he’s going to tell Jim to award them commendations.  They have performed above and beyond their call of duty.

“Near engineering,” Lucy surmises.

“Or the bridge.”

He knows they are just drawing straws.  He also knows they won’t have much time once and if they manage to get inside the ship.

Another obstacle…

“How we get inside?”

“The same way they came through,” Gavin responds.  He taps the edge of the ship, the underbelly.

Leonard raises an eyebrow.  He doesn’t ask how the kid knows _that_.

“There is an opening.  It might still be open.”

It’s better than nothing, and the only thing they have to go on.

“We’ll need to get to a shuttle.”

 

XXXXXXXXX

 

For better or for worse it won’t be long now.

The Galileo looms before them.

_Silent and quiet…_

They just have to make it to her.  The kids are collecting supplies… phasers and jump suits and anything else they can find.  They don’t know what they will find on the alien ship.

He looks down at Taylor.  The boy is still unconscious.  Leonard scans him.  He curses.

The boy’s vitals are off the charts.

It’s clear the boy is just hanging on.  Leonard hates that he can’t do anything for him.  Even the nearest sick bay is too far for them to reach... too risky for them to reach.

They had already almost been caught reaching the shuttle bay.  They had been a hair length away from being spotted.

Besides if the main sickbay is any indication, he has a feeling the others are trashed to.

He doesn’t understand why…

Why the aliens have only trashed the sick bays.

The rest of the ship is almost untouched…

Even the bridge... 

They are running out of time.

He almost screams as his abdomen contracts again.  His stomach turns.  

He throws up.

He doesn’t know if he can keep this up.

His own vitals are off the charts.  He doesn’t know if he can keep going.  He knows he is getting close.  That he’ll hit the transition phase at any moment.

He's running out of time.

His abdomen is in constant pain now.  The contractions are now on top of each other.

“Doctor.”

He looks up.   

He’s seeing stars.

It hurts so bad.

He almost has no relief anymore.

It’s Reena with Syrilius, the Vulcan boy.  She looks worried.  

“You told him.”  Leonard doesn’t accuse her because soon they will all know anyways.

“I had to.  He can help.”

Leonard raises an eyebrow.

“A mind meld, I can try to mind meld with the baby.  Get …”. He looks puzzled for a moment.  “Is it a boy or a girl.”

“We don’t know.”

He looks even more puzzled.

“Wanted it to be a surprise.”

“That’s illogical.  I mean.”  He blushes green.  Leonard wonders if it’s the first time he has seen a Vulcan blush.

Before he can comment, his abdomen contracts again.  He closes his eyes.  

It hurts worse than before.  

When he opens them again, they are still there.

“I can try to convince the fetus to stay put.”

Leonard raises an eyebrow.

That sounds ridiculous.

But...

He’s pretty sure he’s losing his mind when he actually agrees.  That he actually thinks a Vulcan can convince his kid, Jim’s kid, to actually cooperate.  

Leonard nods.

Syrilius blushes again.  “I… It works better against flesh.

“Right.”

He rolls up his shirt.  A large, hard, angry red belly appears.  A pair of feet is pressed firmly against his flesh.

The boy looks concerned.

“I… I need the head.”

He blushes further.

Leonard…

Leonard blushes too.

For the head…

The head is so low now.  

“Help me up.”  He grouses.

He hopes this works.

Syrilius and Reena each give him a hand.  With much effort, he stands up.  He lowers his hands to the bottom of his abdomen.  He feels for the head.  He frowns and goes lower.  He finally finds it.  He hadn’t realized how far down it had dropped.  

The head is definitely engaged.

He’s definitely deep into active labor.

He takes Syrillus’s hands.  He guides them to each side of the baby’s head,  He knows enough about mind melds to know how it works.

The boy closes his eyes.  He mumbles under his breath.  Leonard looks at Reena.

He doesn’t realize he had been holding his breath until Syrillius opens his eyes again.  He looks strained and exhausted.

“Most illogical...”

Leonard rolls his eyes.  He’s about to curse that it’s a baby.  That of course this is ridiculous.

He doesn’t even know why he agreed when the boy speaks again.

“Four hours…”

 


	5. Chapter 5

“What?”

“I think I managed four hours.”  

Leonard is half minded to convince the boy that he doubts babies have a sense of time, but the kid actually looks like he believes it.  That he can actually stall his labor.

Leonard closes his mouth though.  Because that will also mean the kids won’t worry.

“What are we waiting for then?”

He forces a smile as his abdomen contracts again.

_God damnit..._

 

XXXXXXXXX

 

The kids are grouped around doorway.  They are so exposed that it makes Leonard angry.  

Don’t they know the importance of sleath?  He half regrets agreeing to let some of the kids come.  He waddles forward.

_Damn it._

It’s so low like it could drop right out of him.

“Damn it,” he curses.  “What you doin' out in the open?"  

His accent gets thicker when he's angry or excited.  Something that Jim frequently brings up.

The kids flick their heads towards him.  They each take a step backwards.  “Do you want to get killed?”

They each shake their heads furiously.

“Where's Keenser?”

“The little silent alien?” Gavin asks.  “We left him in weapons bay.”  

Leonard glares at the boy.  

They left him behind.  

“Listen boy.”  The others kids back up as if parting the way for him.  “All of you,” he whips around on his heels with an ease he hasn’t had in months. Not since he blew up and outwards like a fucking puffer fish.

He shakes his finger.

“If there is anything you kids learn out of this, is you don’t leave your men behind.  Just because he’s silent, don’t make him useless.”

“Aye sir,” Gavin mutters.  The other kids sound their own 'aye's.    Leonard hopes that they do listen and aren't just cocky kids.  Because he knows this age.

The rebellious teenage years when the youth thinks the world is waiting to bow down to them.

He's grateful and takes what he can when he sees a flush appear on each of the kids' cheeks.

At least they seem embarrassed.  Leonard let's it go at that.  “Now, how many of you know how to fire that weapon?”

He can tell by the way they are holding them that they don’t know.  He hopes they don’t have to use it.  

Because he sure as hell can't give them a crash course in _that_.

He's a healer.  He had swore to do no harm, so on principle he had never taken weapons training seriously.

Before they can answer Keenser appears from around the corner.  His eyes looks strangely misty.  It’s the most emotion he has ever seen from the little alien.  

Leonard half wonders if he heard. He ignores the implications that, that would cause.  Because he has a repution to uphold, one he has to because Jim's crew is full of over achievers who all have a tendency to forget about their own heal and would if he didn't personally threaten them and scowl at them in passing.  

“Come on.”

The kids follow behind him.  Keenser takes up the rear.

The shuttle is unlocked. He wonders if Keenser had something to do with _that._  Because he knows Keenser doesn’t walk slow.  Leonard waits for the kids to board first.

He turns to Keenser.

“Get that transporter working.”

Keenser nods.  

His eyes flicker.

_Right._

As Leonard turns back, Keenser grabs his arm.  He turns almost expecting him to say something.  Instead he squeezes his hand with a surprising amount of force.  

“We’ll get them back.”

Keenser nods.  

He let's go, and Leonard climbs aboard.

He goes to the cockpit.

As he slides into the pilot seat, his abdomen contracts again.

_Fuck._

He squeezes his fist and closes his eyes.  He counts the stars that are swirling around and around.  When he opens them again, he sees Keenser and Reena’s retreating figures.

They are heading for the controls to open the shuttle bay doors.  They’ll have to do it at the last minute to prevent the aliens from detecting anything. 

He trusts them.

He trusts Keenser.

He wipes his sweaty hands on his pants then looks down at the controls.

He takes a deep breath.

Leonard McCoy can count on his hands the number of times he has flown a shuttle.

He only knows how to because Jim had secretly signed him up for flight training in their second year.

The year he had been too busy to send in his own schedule.

He almost skinned Jim alive when he found out. 

Jim just grinned and said cockily, “you’ll need it to be my CMO.”

Leonard had gotten used to hearing Jim say _that_.  He had for all of third term of their first year and all summer.  Leonard had never paid much attention because it had all been talk up to that point.

Like his mama used to say, "all talk and no bark".

That had been the first time Jim had actively done something about it.

He had barely passed.

It had been many days and nights.  Too many times where he had thrown up and too much coaxing and bargaining and bribery from Jim for him to pass.

Ironically a lot like his pregnancy if he thought about it long enough.

He turns his head to look at the kids, the three that are going with him.  He doesn’t want to take them. 

He places his hand on his hard abdomen.  He doesn’t want to take his unborn baby either, but he… they have to save the crew.

“Buckle up.”  He calls to the kids, who aren’t really kids anymore.

They look so scared and so young in their away mission uniforms.  Deep blue with division stripes on the shoulder blades.  It looks so big on them.

They are each holding phasers in those awkward poses.  

He really hopes they wouldn’t have to use them.

His own phasers, Jim’s phasers, are still around his belt.  

He turns back around when he confirms they have buckled up.  He rubs his abdomen one more time.  "Let’s do this.” 

The baby kicks as if telling him it is with him.

He pulls out the checklist that the pilots keep in the shuttle.  The one that Jim, Sulu and the other pilots have in their head. 

Everything that he needs to check to not kill them all.   

It tries not to think about _that_.

He tries not to think about all the things he is bad at... 

Landing is one of them.  That has alway been his weakest.  

He focuses on what he can do.  

He can fly straight, and luckily the alien ship is straight ahead.

He’s half way through the checklist when he sees one of the kids from his peripheral vision.

He’s surprised it’s Lucy, the quiet little girl in the pack, and not Gavin. 

“My uncle is a shuttlecraft pilot.”

“Buckle in kid,” Leonard responds.  He could use a co-pilot.  The cockpit it larger than he remembers.  The last time he had been here was with Jim, and it hadn’t been for flying.  

Lucy beams.

He places the check list between them, so Leonard doesn’t have to do other sides.

It feels like eternity.

He thinks they won’t get away with this.  That the aliens will discover them when they finally finish.  

“Ready kid?”

She nods.

_Are they really ready?_

He feels the baby kick again.

Like it’s ready.

He flips the switch, and the engines whirl to life.  He places both hands on the wheel and depresses the accelerator with his feet. 

The shuttle lifts off…

 

XXXXXXXXX

 

Space is dark and quiet.

The Enterprise, all her glory, is eerily quiet.  She gets smaller and smaller as Leonard pilots the tiny shuttle towards the alien ship.  It dwarfs them all in size and magnitude.

He hears Lucy’s gasp.

He reaches over and gently squeezes her hand.

She looks at him fearfully. 

“How are we going to do this?”

He rests his hand on his abdomen.

A baby they had never dreamt possible.

A baby that for nine months had scared them, still scared them.

But who he dreams of holding.

Who he is going to hold.

He steels voice before speaking.

“We fight.  We believe.  And we give it our best.”

He glides the shuttle further.  He tightens his grip around the controls, aiming for that point at the underbelly where Gavin had said there would be an opening.

“Look for it,” he calls out to the kids.

Because they are on a time.  If the alien ship is anything like a Federation ship, it is only a matter of time before they are detected.

He slows the shuttle. 

To give them a chance to look.

To also give himself a chance…

As his abdomen contracts again.  His hand slides off the controls and onto his belly.

It tightens.

He closes his eyes.

_Fuck…._

His feet presses down on the accelerator.

He feels them veer sideways.

“Doctor!”

His eyes snap open.

His feet falls from the accelerator.

But they are going in too fast… 

“There!”  Lucy shouts.  She points to the ten o’clock position.

It’s their only chance.

Leonard turns the tiny shuttle.

His feet goes for the brakes through he knows it won’t be enough to stop them.

He doesn’t know how much to give…

How much to turn.

He’s not a pilot damn it.

_It’s all about the feel._

Jim’s voice…

The advice that Jim had given him years ago.  He hadn't understood it then and in reality he doesn’t really understand it now.

But he tries… 

Because his abdomen still hurt so bad that he can’t focus.

So he doesn’t think, he doesn’t do the calculations that his instructor preached.  Not that he understood them. 

And he turns the shuttle…

And he aims for that tiny opening on such a massive ship.

He thinks he’s over shot it until the last second when his abdomen stops contracting. When he goes through the opening.  

Into the heart of the monster.

He lands the shuttle with a hard bump then another bump.  

Only then does he take the breath he had been holding.

He cuts the engine immediately.  

And he strains his ears and eyes.  

It’s quiet. 

Quiet and dark…

It's more than they could have hoped for.  That they didn't just wander into a firefight.

They did it.

They made it.

And now…

It starts.

He unclips his harness and turns to look at the kids.

“Ready?”

The kids nod.

The first thing Leonard notices is how dark and damp the interior of the ship it.  The walls and floors are covered in a layer of thick slime.  It sticks to their boots and makes their progress slow.  It’s almost as thick of molasses.

At least it’s not toxic.  The sensors had said so.  It gives Leonard one peace of mind.  

It reminds Leonard of something that he can’t pin point.

It’s eerie how quiet the ship is, like the Enterprise, like it too is dead.

“It’s like a swamp.”

Leonard whips his head around.  It’s Gavin.  He’s clenching his phaser so hard that Leonard is almost afraid he’ll misfire.  But it’s true.

It does remind Leonard of a swamp.  

He thinks back to the alien he had stunned.  How its skin had felt slimy like that of a reptile.  

He can’t think about _that_ now.  About new alien species or new discoveries, he has to find Jim.  He has to get back to the Enterprise because he’s not giving birth on this ship.

It is anything but sanitary.

A place where germs are thriving.

Leonard almost thinks they can do this.  They make it out of the 'shuttle bay', and the thick slim starts to thin out.  It’s still damp, and the walls are still covered, but the amount on the ground is starting to thin out.

It’s still dark and quiet.

It almost feels too easy.   

Then they reach their first intersection.  The kids looked at him with wide eyes.  Leonard can deduce they all know what he is about to say.  He hates it, but as he had learned long ago.  He has to do things he hates.  Everyone does.

“Okay.  We split up.  Keep your coms and eyes open.  And be careful.”

The kids nod.  He watches as they each go down a separate path.  He places his hand on his abdomen.  

“Okay, let’s do this.”

 

XXXXXXXXX

 

His contractions keep him on edge.  They are almost non stop, one on top of each other.

He can barely keep upright anymore.  He knows it’s dangerous.  But he has tucked his phaser back.  He uses the wall to support himself, to force himself to keep going.

Each steps is agonizingly painful.  He feels like his hips are splitting apart.  That the baby is splitting him into two as it descends further and further. 

The next corner, the next turn, it’s how he keeps going because the kids haven’t had any luck.

Then he hears a scream from the com.

As he reaches for instinctively for his phaser, he feels the hard, cold steel of a rifle against the arch of his back…


	6. Chapter 6

He knows better than to fight.  He drops his hands and holds them up.  

He hopes they take it as a sign of surrender.  That this isn’t some dark society that doesn’t believe in surrendering.

There are five of them, angry, big and tall.  They tower over him.  Leonard can tell they are bigger than the ones that took over the Enterprise.

The one in the center looks even bigger.  There is a way that it holds itself, arrogant, sure and confident.  A way where the others give it a certain distance that causes Leonard to deduce that it’s the leader.

It steps forward until they are millimeters apart.

Leonard doesn’t know what to expect.

He definitely doesn’t expect it to stick out its long serpentine tongue.  It slithers towards him.  Leonard flinches.  The two split tips shake like a pair of fucking cobras before it licks him.  It licks him from his forehead to his neck.

It’s wet and slimy.  

And retracts just as quickly.

“What the hell!” Leonard snaps.  He knows his outburst will probably cause all kinds of trouble.

_But damn it…_

His mind is in all forms of haze from the pain.  

The constant pain…

His abdomen contracts like a fucking vice grip.  He puts all his energy into just standing upright.  His legs are shaking horribly.

He's a complete wreck.

But survival 101 had always taught him to stand his ground.

He’s expecting some kind of backlash.  Instead the alien just looks at him, like it’s amused, like it’s pleased.

There is a brief pause then…

“He’s the one.”

Before he can react...  

Before he can demand to know what the hell, he feels the butt of the alien's weapon hit him on the head.  

He falls forward.  

It’s his training that prevents him from falling onto his abdomen.

“Damn it!” He curses out.

He looks up at the aliens.

They are smirking at him.

They find it funny.

The leader turns.  “Bring him.”

Leonard curses when two of the aliens grabs him under each arm.  He kicks out to no avail.  

They are tall and strong.  They cart him away easily.  They pass through corridors and intersections.  Leonard tries to keep up, so he can remember how to get back to the shuttle.

It’s this distraction that keeps him from passing out from the pain.

He feels like they have been traveling for hours when they finally reach a large room.  It looks like it could fit three of the Enterprise’s bridges inside easily and with room to spare.

His eyes sweep the room.

The damp slimy room…

He swears there are some alien fungus growing in the darker corners.

They land on the kids…

_The kids…_

All three of them…

They are huddled in the corner. They are scared.  Three large aliens have their weapons trailed on them.

But they are awake…

They aren’t hurt…

It’s the most Leonard can ask for.

They drop him unceremoniously in the center of the room in front of an alien whose bigger and larger than the ones that had captured him.  He wonders if these aliens base their rank on size.  

He feels the butt of a weapon against the nap of his back.

He looks up.

His hands shake.

His abdomen contracts again.  His eyes burn.  

It takes all of his will power and more to not double over.  He wants to push.  He needs to push, but he can’t push.

He closes his eyes.

He wishes he was telepathic like Vulcans then he could will his body to slow down.

And he most of all…

He waits…

He’s failed.

He’s failed them all.

_The kids…_

_The crew…_

_His baby…_

_Jim…_

He wonders where Jim is.

He wonders if Jim even knows he’s here…

The alien talk among themselves.  They seem angry.  They seem like they are arguing with each other.  It’s so garbled that the translator can’t pick up what they are saying.

Finally the leader breaks away from the group and approaches him.

“You are The Doctor?”

He doesn’t know what _that_ mean, and damn it he’s not in the mood to play twentyone questions.

His body is telling him all sorts of things, things and actions that he really doesn’t want to come to fruition.  

“Where is my captain?”

“No questions.  Only answers.”

He feels the rifle jab into his back; however, compared to the pain in his abdomen it feels no more than a simple prick.

“Damn it.”

“Are you The Doctor?”  The alien asks again.

He glares at them.  It’s about all he can do.  He knows he’s cornered.  That he doesn’t have anymore hands to play.

Except... 

_They are looking for him._

He grabs at that idea.

“I am a doctor.”

“Leo Nard Mac Coy.”

Leonard grimaces at their butchered attempt at his name.

“I am.”

If the alien could smile, Leonard thinks this is the closest it would look.  It even looks relieved.

“You will operate, and you will save her.”

“What?”

That had been the last thing he had expected.

“You will operate, and you will save her.”

The alien repeats its statement as if the second time would be any better.

It isn't.

All it does is confirm he hadn’t misunderstood the first time.

_Operate…_

Leonard can barely walk straight anymore let alone operate.   He’s not even sure he can stand up.

He doesn’t have his tricorder to check, but he’s almost certain he has to be close.

_Instinct..._

He can’t save anyone in his condition.

He is silly to think he could have to begin with.  

He’s not Jim.

He’s a healer.

Not an hero.

“And if I don’t?”

“Then you will die.  Your crew will die.  Your captain will die.”

The alien smiles.

His mind reels.  He latches onto the first thought in his mind.

“I don’t know anything about your morphology.”

It's the first thought that comes to mind.  Because it is true.  He has no idea what species these aliens are.  If they have any genetic similarities to any of the alien morphologies that he does know.

The closest he can think of is the Gorn, and he knows only one thing about them.

_Their offspring bite._

“That has not stopped you before.”

Leonard raises an eyebrow.

“Were you not the one that told your captain ‘you could cure a rainy day’?”

A sick feeling courses through his body.

“That was a figure of speech, damnit!”

“What is a figure of speech?”  The aliens turn to look at each other.

“It’s…”  He waves his hands.

He looks at the kids.  The aliens still have their weapons pressed against them.  Leonard doesn’t shake away the idea that they won’t shoot.

“Doesn’t matter.”  The leader speaks.  “You will operate, and you will save her.”

He feels the weapon press deeper into Leonard’s back.

“Save who?”  Leonard asks because he’s curious.  Because he’s trying to buy time, he’s not sure who he’s buying time for.

_Jim?_

_Himself?_

He doesn’t know if the alien chooses to not answer or doesn’t understand.  Anyways, it doesn’t answer him.  Instead it flicks its hand backwards, it motions something to the aliens near the kids.  He then points to Gavin.

“Or that boy dies.”

He sees Gavin’s eyes widen.  The alien closest to Gavin straightens.

“Then you will all die.”  The alien smiles.  “What say you, Doctor?”

The alien’s fingers wrap around its weapon.

_He can’t…_

_He has to…_

Help isn’t going to come.  He has to help himself.

“Okay I’ll do it,” Leonard agrees. He looks at the kids.  They are definitely scared.

“As long as you don’t hurt them.  As long as you don’t hurt any of them.”

The leader smiles.  “Agreed,” it says almost too easily.

Leonard wonders if he has forgotten or overlooked something.

But at this point, his brain, his whole body feels like it’s on fire that he can’t really think much of anything.

He really doesn’t know how he’ll operate.

He doesn’t even know what he’s operating on or with.

He doesn’t have much time to think though.  Before he can process anything, he’s being taken through a door he hadn’t even noticed even existed.  He last sees the kids being taken somewhere.

He can only hope the aliens have some sort of honor.  That they will honor the argument.

Even Klingons have honor, he thinks cynically.

The room is poorly lit.  

He makes out a bed… a fucking biobed.  In fact, on closer inspection, it looks like the aliens have moved one of the smaller med bays here.

And his patient…

He meets it…

“Our queen.”

The alien supplies.

She is a ghastly woman.  She’s big, larger than all of the other aliens.

She dwarfs them all in size.

And she looks like she’s dying.

Leonard may not know anything about these aliens.  

But he does know this…

He immediately enters his doctor mode.  He slides into it like a perfectly fit glove.

It has been a while since he has operated.  The size of his abdomen makes it hard for him to get the full range he needs to effectively operate.  As he leans down now, he realizes just how small the distance has become.  How far the baby has dropped.  How much it sags downwards.

He flips the biobed on.  He’s surprised it comes to life.  The readings are off the charts.

He barks for his tricorder.  When the aliens don’t respond, he curses at everything.

“Damn it, I need a team.”

“No, just you.”

Leonard rolls his eyes.  He doesn’t have time to argue.  “Then at least promise you won’t blow my head off while I work.”

“She live. You all go.”

“Great.”

Leonard turns back to his patient.  He doesn’t ask for water because he doubts these aliens know what that means.  He finds himself digging through slim and flesh… rotting flesh… and then something hard, smooth, sharp, and sticky.

The queen moans.  

The aliens bustle.  The one in charge roars.  “Not there!”

He pulls back startled.

“Damn it man!”  Leonard roars.  He’s not used to working in these conditions.  If it can even be called _working._  “Why the hell not?”

“That place is sacred, forbidden.”  The alien answers cryptically.

Leonard raises an eyebrow,

Because whatever it is.  He has enough sense to know it’s not right.

“We don’t have time for this.  If you want my help, you have to tell me.”

The alien looks torn.  He looks down at his queen who has quieted down.

“It’s where we come from.”

Leonard’s eyes widen.

_Eggs…_

He looks down at his fingers.  The sticky coating like yolk and white except it’s not yellow or clear but a deep angry brown.

He can tell it’s not right.

In his condition, it makes him feel bad.  She's dying and with it her offspring.

He can sympathize with how they feel.

How he would feel if something happened to his baby.

“What happened?”

“Another race wounded our queen, poisoned her.”

Leonard looks at the readings.  

They don’t make sense, or if it does he doesn’t know what they mean.  They can’t help him.

“Where? And what?”

“An explosion, metal.”

Leonard pales.  “Gunpowder, bullet shards.”

One of the aliens bristles. It looks like it’s about to pounce on him or fire at him.  The leader places its hand on its shoulder.  

“No.”

“He knows!”  It’s the first time one of the other aliens has spoken.  It speaks with more grunts and slurs than the leader.  “ _His_ people did it to our queen.”

“No.  He will save her.”

The leader looks at him.  

There is a look in its eyes, it's dark eyes.   Like it is putting all its belief in him.  Leonard has seen it many times.  Many times before a surgery, people, aliens, it’s a commonality between all life forms.

It’s putting its trust into him.

And since this all began, it wasn't until now, but Leonard does want to help them.

As much as he hates them for what they did, Leonard can’t help but feel for them.  He understands.

He turns back to the sensors.  He wishes he knew anything, something about these aliens.  He can tell the shards of bullets are poisoning her.  He has to find and cut them out.

_Concentrate Leonard._

His abdomen burns so much that he can’t.

But he has to.

He has to.

The mass of slim and skin and tissue.

The readings don’t make sense.

But it’s foreign bodies that are causing her harm…

The sensors _can_ read that.

It’s a thought...

An idea…

It’s more than he has before and he takes it.

He enters in the parameters.  Anything he knows about gunpowder and metals.

And then the screen lights up…

There are hundreds of hits…

“Damn it,” he curses as he grabs the hypospray.  The alien grabs his hand.  

“For the pain.”

“No.”

He drops it.  He doesn’t have time for this, so he instead reaches for the knife.  He almost thinks the alien will stop him again, but it doesn’t.

He makes the first cut.  

The queen contorts.  

“Damn it.”  He glares at the alien.  The one that refused to let him give her the pain relief.  “Well, hold her down, man!”  He curses.  He’s a little surprised that they actually comply.

He cuts again.

His abdomen contracts then.  He closes his eyes.  His hand shakes.  He stills it.  He breaths out slowly until his contraction stops again.  

He needs time.

_Time…_

Another hour…

He can save this alien.

But his body betrays him.  

He needs to push.  

The aliens look at him.

He almost screams when his contraction picks up again.  He parts his legs and pushes.  He gasps when he feels it.  The large crown of a baby’s head as it pushes against his prostate.

Then the sensation stops, and he feels the baby retreat upwards.

And then the machine sounds…

The sound he hates.

The sound when a patient is dying.  It jolts him for his stupor.  The aliens growl.  Like they know.

He can’t let her die.  

Because he doesn’t know what they will do.

_Damn it…_

He drops the knife.

He places his fist above the section of her chest where he has deduced her heart is.  He compresses downwards, hard.  

“Come on,” he implores.

“Come on,” he chants.  He’s pushing.  Pushing the life back into this alien as he pushes his baby out.  He doesn’t even know who he’s saying the words to.

Again and again…

He breathes into her.

Once…

Twice…

He pounds into her chest.

And then… silence…

The alien roars.  It’s loud and gut wrenching.

The anger…

The hatred…

He has never heard anything so horrible.

He finds himself backing away as the aliens surround her. He's up against a wall before they turn on him.

He reflexively reaches for Jim’s phaser.  He pulls it out the moment the aliens charge at him.

He pulls the trigger.  He bites his tongue, steadies his hand and feels the recoil.  

He lets out a strangled scream as his contraction starts again.

He pushes while he pulls the trigger again and again.  

He doesn’t know if he’s hit anything.

Surely he has...

“Bones!”  

The sound of his husband…

His beautiful, wonderful husband…

_Of Jim…_

He doesn’t lower his hands.  His fingers doesn't leave the trigger until he hears more phaser fire.  Ones that aren't connected to his phaser.

It's only then does he drop his phaser…

And then…

Then he feels it…

He feels the baby’s head against his skin, hard and bulging against him.

He feels Jim’s warmth as he pulls him against his chest.

“Bones,”  he says again.

“The … The baby…” He mutters.  He clenches his teeth and pushes again.  

It burns so much.

It hurts so bad.

“Bones?”

He doesn’t know how to explain.  He needs to push.  He needs Jim to remove his pants, his underwear even in this filthy place.

“The baby…”  He says again.  He says through clenched teeth.

“What?  Is something wrong?  Is it okay?”  

He see Jim’s worry.

“No, damnit!”  He roars.  He screams.  Through his screams, he manages to form words.  “It’s coming!”

Jim’s eyes widen.  He sees the horror.

It’s different from the horror Leonard feels.  The horror as he feels the baby move through him, stretching him.

He doesn’t process when Jim lowers him to the ground or peels off his pants.  He can only feel the pain, the burn, the stretch of his skin.

“Oh god, Bones.  I see it.”  Jim gasps.  

He hears _that_.

“I can see it.”  He says again.

He wants to roll his eyes.  That, that’s what he’s been saying, but he can’t.  Not through the pain…

He pushes again.

He does want to kiss Jim when he bends his knees for him.  He screams as he feels it move further down.  

“So close, Bones,” Jim urges.

He needs it out, so badly.

Then the sirens go off...


	7. Chapter 7

The lights flash.  

A countdown starts…

Leonard curses the world.

Because he recognizes what it is.

Even in a civilization as different as these aliens, some thing are universal.

He’s shaken back to the moment when a voice cuts through his thoughts.

“Captain,” it’s Spock.  “Doctor…” He seems startled.  The tips of his Vulcan ears turn green.  “It seems we have activated the self destruct sequence.  We need to get off this vessel.”

Jim looks at him.  His hold on to his ankles tightens.  “Can we stop it Spock?”

“Negative.  There is not enough time. We have at most, enough time to send the crew back through the transporter.”

_Transporter…_

He doesn't know if Jim or Spock knows it's being worked on. He hasn’t checked in with Keenser in ages to find out.

“Keenser…” He manages to garble out.  Jim and Spock both look at him.  “Transporter down.”  He chokes out before his need to push overtakes him again.  He screams as he buckles forward.

The feels the friction of the baby’s head against his skin.

He feels like his hips are going to snap in half.

There is no doubt in his mind that the baby is large.  

He’s huge.

He had been breaking averages and percentiles his whole pregnancy.

He feels the full weight of it now.

“Doctor, are you okay?”

At that moment, he does not understand how Uhura or Jim does it.  

How they deal with this computer…

“Just peachy,” Leonard grits out as his contraction passes again.

He crumples back onto the floor.

"About as okay as one be in trying to accomplish what amounts to pushing a watermelon through a lifesaver."

Spock blinks.

"Doctor, what you just said is illogical.  It is mathematically impossible to push a watermelon through what I believe you refer to as a small human piece of candy from the twentieth century."

The countdown gets louder and more persistent.

“Spock could you?"  Jim interrupts before he can say anything.  

He feels Jim’s hold leave him for a moment to be replaced by a different touch.  He doesn’t compute it as his abdomen seizes again.  

He screams.

From his peripheral vision, he sees Jim pulling out his com.  He doesn’t hear the conversation as he focuses on pushing.

And on Spock…

Spock who’s ears are greener than before.  Spock who is looking between his legs.

“Good god man, stop looking,” Leonard snaps when it passes.

“Doctor, your body appears to be actively trying to expel a human fetus.”  He actually sounds surprised.  

He raises an eyebrow.

Before he can respond though, Jim returns.  “Okay Spock.  Keenser says the transporters are working.  Round up the crew and get them off the ship.”  He looks at Leonard.  “Bones and I will take the shuttle.”

“Affirmative, captain.”

He lets go his ankles.

“Spock, have medical meet us at the shuttle bay with a stretcher.”

“Yes Captain.”

“God’s speed, Spock.”

Spock nods.

“We’re see you on the Enterprise.”

With that Spock disappears.  Jim turns back to him.  He worries his lips.  He suddenly looks indecisive.

“Damn it Jim, help me up.”

“But Bones, the baby…”

Leonard scoffs.  “We got to get off this damn ship.”

_Or they will die._

He gasps when another contraction hits.  He feels the baby.  It’s so close.  It feels like it could fall right out of him.

Jim nods.  He stands up then hooks his arms over Leonard’s legs and back. “Jim, what are you doing?”

“I don’t know medicine, but I do know physics.”  Jim grunts.  He pulls him into a princess hold.  

“Jim, put me down.  How far do you think we’re going to get like this?”

“Bones where’s the shuttle?”

He knows not to argue when Jim gets like this.  

He’s stubborn.

“Through that way and around the bend, two turns and…”

“Fuck!”

He buckles forward.  His abdomen seizes again. He flails his arms and his legs.  He doesn't mean it when his fist comes into contact with Jim’s nose.  He doesn’t comprehend the crack or when Jim screams himself.

“Fuck! Fuck!”

He can’t control his body.  He pushes and pushes.  He feels the baby moving.  He feels its head against his skin.  It’s nose… Hand… Something hit his prostate.  

His mind reels.

“‘Ones…”

He collapses against Jim’s chest completely spent when it thankfully passes. It’s then he realizes Jim’s face is a bloody mess.

“Oh god, Jim.”

“Not too bad.”  He grimaces though.  “And nowhere near as bad as you have it.”  

He doesn’t argue with that when his feels his abdomen contract again.

Jim is more aware of the hazards this time and manages to avoid the next volley of contractions.   

Leonard almost cries for when he sees the shuttle exactly where he had landed it.

Most importantly it is in one piece and completely untouched.

It’s the first time Leonard is happy to hear the familiar hiss of the shuttle door as it opens.  The inside is dark and cool.  

Jim sets him into the copilot seat.

It’s hard and cold and constricting.   

But Leonard understands.  It’s for both their benefit.  It’s a short distance.

He knows he’s sweaty.  He knows he’s due for another contraction as Jim reaches for the harness.  He looks apologetic.

Leonard rolls his eyes.  Of all the things, this is the last of his worries.

The more pressing issue is the count down.  It feels like it has been going for ages.  That it’s due to explode soon.

Jim tucks himself in faster.  Unlike Leonard, he has the shuttle checklist memorized and can do it faster.  

His eyes are closed when he feels the shuttle whirl to life.  

The sweet, sweet sound of engine thrust as Jim guides the shuttle off the ground.  He watches Jim pulls out his comm as he inputs in their coordinates with his other hand.

“Kirk to Spock, come in Spock.”

It takes a few seconds.  Leonard hears the crackle.

He doesn’t hear the rest of the conversation as another contraction over takes him.

He’s pushing, and he’s bearing down.  

_And fuck…_

_Fuck…_

_Fuck…_

Then it passes.

As he opens his eyes, he sees the flash of bright white light encircling them as the alien ship explodes.

He feels the heat.

The entire shuttle shudders hard.  It’s like a tide wave that plummets against them.   It shakes them like a rag doll.

It clenches his harness.  His teeth chatter.  He looks over at Jim who’s clenching the steering wheel tightly as he tries to outrun the destruction, outrun the light, outrun the heat.

Then his abdomen contracts again, and he doesn’t care anymore.

He only wants to push.

He needs to push.

He does push.

Then it passes.

He’s tired, and he’s spent with little to show for it.  

He can’t effectively push in this position.

He feels Jim’s hand rest of his leg.  It’s warm.  It grounds him.

He looks over at Jim.  

The blood has dried against his skin.  It’s the first time he has noticed the black eye and the other bruises.  The ones he hadn’t noticed in the dim lighting of the alien ship.  

He hates it when Jim gets hurt.  He hates it when he has to piece him back together.

He gently caresses one of the bruises.  Jim flinches.

“Jim?”

“It’s nothing a regen can’t fix Bones.”

Leonard hates it when he gets like this.  Before he can say anything else his abdomen contracts again, and he’s lost in the row of pain and more pain.

Through the pain he hears Jim’s voice.  “Kirk to Enterprise, come in Enterprise.”

Silence and static greets them.

“Jim?”

He can see Jim is worried.  He’s worried about his crew and his ship.  They had barely gotten out.  They can only hope the crew got out in time.

There is a part of him.  A part of him that had held onto the hope of giving birth in sick bay.

He knows now it’s not possible.

Their baby is coming.

At least Jim is here.

And really that is all matters.

But that also means…

“Jim, you’re going to have to delivery the baby.”  He says it as calmly as he can.

Jim’s blue eyes widen.

“What?  No, Bones…” He reaches for his com.

He feels his abdomen hardening.  “Jim, it’s coming.”  Leonard roars.  He screams as he pushes.  

It seems to be enough for Jim as he drops between his legs.

“Oh god, Bones, I see its head.”  Jim whispers.

The awe in his voice…

“It’s hair.”

Jim looks up.  

“You're so close, Bones.”

He takes it as a lifeline as he pushes.  He pushes hard and long, straining every fiber of his body.

As he collapses back onto the chair, it feels different.  He feels the folds his skin stretch around the head.  

It hurts.

It burns.

Jim further confirms what he already knows.

“Just a little more Bones, than its nose will be out.”

He wants to push, but he knows he shouldn't.  He should wait for the next contraction, or he’ll tear.

Leonard wishes could see.

He’s seen a million births, but this is his own.  He wishes he was in his sick bay, with all the mirrors.

Times like these he thinks Jim can read his mind.  He doesn’t know how, but Jim manages to find a mirror.  

The view before him startles him.  It’s a mess of swollen skin and, and the faint, almost invisible mess of baby fuzz.

He feels his eyes water.

He gently reaches down and runs his fingers over it.  It's soft.

It's their baby.

The next volley of pain seems to be nonexistent as his next contraction occurs.

His heart swells as he sees his baby emerge from him.

The tiny forehead…

A tiny button nose…

A pair of rosy red lips…

He hears Jim’s gasp.  The mirror falls to the ground as Jim reaches to support its head.

Leonard falls back, exhausted, knowing the hard part is now done.

As the next contraction takes him…

He pushes…

And then…

What feels like a million years, he feels the baby leave him.  It seems to almost glide out of him.  He falls back completely exhausted.

And he waits…

He waits…

“Bones, it’s not crying!”  

He looks up.  He sees Jim cradling the baby.  It’s covered in blood and vernix.  

It’s pink.  

But it’s not crying…

“Give it here!”  Leonard snaps.  His doctor mode kicks in.

Jim nods.

It’s warm.

It’s beautiful.

But silent.

_No…_

_No…_

This can’t be happening.

_Not again…_

He takes the baby and gently opens its mouth.  He pulls out as much of it as he can before lowering his mouth.  He sucks and sucks before raising his head and quickly spits it out.  He does it again and again.  He then clears it's nostrils.

Still it doesn’t breath.

It doesn’t cry.

He can feel Jim’s horror.

“Come on,” he mutters, coaxing, urging it to cry.

He flips it over and starts to stroke its back.  

“Come on baby.  Come on." 

He’ll never forgive himself if something happens to the baby.

Because of what he had done...

He hears a whimper, followed by a wail.

He sighs.  A smile appears on his face, and he turns the baby around…

_The baby…_

He then realizes in the frenzy of it all; neither he or Jim bothered to check its gender.  He laughs as the baby, now alert and wailing, kicks its tiny legs…

_Her tiny legs…_

He amends his thoughts.

_His daughter..._

_Their daughter…_

“It’s a girl.”

“We have a daughter.”  Jim is laughing and crying.

The little girl, now that she has started to cry, doesn’t let up.  

And Leonard is okay with that.

Because he feels like crying himself.

He feels Jim’s warmth against his body.  “She’s so beautiful,” he hears the marvel in Jim’s voice.  “And so tiny.”  Jim takes her tiny hand.  “And strong.”

She is tiny and strong.

Leonard had noticed that.  She’s much smaller when compared to the size his belly had grown to.

“Hey baby girl.  I’m your daddy.”  Jim whispers.  “And this is your papa.  He’s grouchy and going to freak out about everything, baby girl.”

Leonard rolls his eyes.

Jim kisses him.  “But he's amazing.  So amazing.”

“Jim.”

He looks at his husband.  His own blue eyes are watery and bright.

“Ready to go home?”

_Home…_

It feels like a lifetime has gone by.  He’s ready to sleep in their bed.  To dress their baby girl in one of her outfits…

“Yeah…”

Jim smiles.  He picks up his com.

“Kirk to Enterprise.”

“Spock here.”

Jim takes a breath of fresh air.  “The crew?”

“Everyone is accounted for.  We had some casualties though.”

_Causalities…_

He sees Jim’s body stiffen.  Jim has always taken each loss of life under his command personally.  That it is his fault.  That he couldn’t have done more.  Leonard tightens his hand around Jim's arm to serve as a grounding point.

His way of saying ‘you tried and you did your best, Jim.’

“Noted, Mr. Spock.  We have sustained some damages too.  Please have the Enterprise toll is in.”

“Acknowledged Captain.”  There is a brief pause.  “We have your coordinates.”

Jim smiles at Leonard.  

Leonard smiles back.

At that moment Jo coos.

“Captain?”

_Of course Spock hears._

“Please note in the ship logs that Joanna Leigh Kirk-McCoy was born at…”

His abdomen contracts again.

He’s reeling.  It’s stronger than what afterbirth should feel like.

“Jim…”

Jim turns his head to look at him.

“Jim…”

It hurts.

It’s even more painful than earlier.

Jim is between his legs in seconds.  His communicator has landed on the ground, forgotten.

He looks pale.

“Jim?”

“Feet…"


	8. Chapter 8

“What?”

Because there is no way Jim just said what he did.  He has had thousands of scans.  Scans he conducted.  Scans his team conducted.  Scans the newly formed Vulcan Science Academy conducted.  There are PADDs full of scans, tests and reports documenting his pregnancy since it happened.

“There’s a pair of feet, Bones.”  Jim looks frantic.  

_Another baby…_

His mind is racing.

_Feet…_

It’s breeched.  It’s completely breeched.

And there is no way, Jim can handle it.

“Bones.  What do I do?”   

It seems Jo can sense her parents’ panic.  She lets out a whimper.

“Shh,” Leonard mutters.  He rubs his baby girl’s cheeks.

“Bones…”

His abdomen contracts again.  

He does his best to not scream.

The pain is worse now.  He feels like he’s tearing, like he’s splitting into two.

Jim rubs his legs as he grabs his communicator off the floor.  “Kirk to Spock.”

Spock’s voice fizzles through.  “Spock here.”

“Have M’Benga meet us at the shuttle bay.”  He looks at him.  “With a stretcher.”

“Affirmative Captain.  May I ask why?”

“There is a second baby.  There are complications.  The baby is presenting feet first.  Additionally, Dr. McCoy is bleeding heavily.”

Jim hadn’t mentioned _that_.

It explains why he suddenly feels so cold.

“Noted Captain, docking in five minutes.  Medical will meet you both in the docking bay." 

"Kirk out."  He snaps his communicator closed and turns his whole attention back to Leonard.

Leonard feels himself getting colder and sleepier.  The only thing grounding him to reality is Jo’s warmth and Jim’s piercing blue eyes.

“Bones, stay with me.”

He sounds scared.  Leonard vaguely wonders in his hazy mind if this is the first time Jim has sounded like this.

He tries to concentrate on Jim.  On those baby blues…

He vaguely wonders if Jo will inherit her daddy’s eyes.

His vision trails downwards to Jim’s shirt.  It’s stained with blood.

He can barely register that it’s his blood.  It’s his blood that is soaking through Jim’s shirt.

He finds it ironic.

He wonders if this is the first time.

“Bones, stay with me, please.  We’re almost home.”

_Home…_

He hears Jo’s scream.  It’s so far away.  He almost protests when he feels the loss of her heat.

He can make out Jim running to the shuttle bay door.  He’s pale.  He looks scared.

_It’s bad._

“Damnit where’s M’Benga and Chapel.”

Leonard knows it’s bad.  The floor is covered in blood.  It’s like a war zone.

_And the baby…_

_The second baby…_

“Jim.”  He has to.

Jim isn’t thinking straight.

Jim turns.  He looks like a deer standing in front of headlights.  

“Jim.”  He calls again.

His abdomen contracts again.

 _Fuck…_  

He closes his eyes, but he doesn’t have the energy to do anything.

When it finally passes, he opens his eyes.  He finds Jim kneeling beside him.  Jo is in his arms.  

She isn’t crying anymore like she understands something serious is happening.

“Bones.”  

He’s in tears.  

Leonard moves his hand down to where Jim’s is.  He feels Jim’s hands and then, then the warmth and softness of their baby.

“Jim, listen to me.  Whatever happens, get the baby out.”

“Bones.”

“Promise me.”  Leonard repeats.  

_The baby has to survive._

_He has to make sure Jim understands that._

“Dr. McCoy!”  It’s M’Benga.  He sees his face wavering in front of him.  

A blur of color…

“Leonard…”  

“Jim…” He mutters again.  

He hears the familiar hum of the tricorder.  “Dear God…”   He hears M’Benga whisper.  He wonders if it’s the first time he has heard M’Benga say _that._

They are talking.  

They are saying things in hush voices.

He feels movement.  He barely registers when they rip his uniform.  He feels Jo’s lips latch around his nipple.  He feels her suck.  

Though his addled mind he understands what they are trying to do.  He’s hemorrhaging.  They are trying to get it to stop.

He’s just sad that this is how the first time feeding his daughter has to go.  He had always pictured it differently.  

More peaceful, more private.  

Just him, Jim and their baby...

He tries to lift his hand to at least touch the baby, but it feels like lead.  He tries to speak.  

“J...Jim.”

“Bones.”  He’s afraid.  He’s scared.  “We’re going to take you to sick bay. We’re going to get the baby out.  Just hang on, Bones.”  

“Jim… promise me…”

“Bones.”

He hears more voices, different voices.  He almost screams when they move him, when his abdomen seizes again.

The pain is almost unbearable…

He contorts upwards…

His body is protesting, trying to expel the second baby.

He sees forms and faces he can’t make out.  He sees the bright lights in the corridors as they roll him through.    The only face he can make out is Jim’s. Jim’s bright blue eyes as he holds his hand with one hand, and with the other holds their baby against his chest.

It feels like an eternity has gone by before they finally stop.  There are more voices.  More frantic, urgent voices.

He can make out words.

Like…

_The transporter…_

Then Jim’s rushed “no!” 

This won’t do.  This can’t do.

“Just cut it…”  Leonard mutters.  He clenches his teeth.  

“Leonard…”

He’s wavering.  He knows it.  He knows M’Benga knows it.  That they are know it.

“Cut me.  Save the baby.”  He says with all the strength he can muster.

“Leonard, we don’t have any way to put you under.  The aliens…”

“Do it.”

He doubts his body will mind any further pain.  

It’s all pain and haze.

"Do it, Jabilo."  He steels himself.

M'Benga stops then calls out the words that sounds like music to his ears.

“Prep the OR.”

He barely registers as they swab his swollen abdomen clean.  He thinks now this explains his massive size and how fast he started to show.

At the time, they had attributed to an anomaly, genetics, his body producing a larger uterus, his body structure...

Everything but a second baby…

He focuses on Jim.  Jim who doesn’t leave his side.  Who is wordlessly provided scrubs.  His heart squeezes when one of the orderlies takes Jo away.

He already misses her heat.

_She’s fine._

He tells himself.

_She’s perfect and healthy._

He barely registers the fact they have called in Spock.  He realizes all too soon why.

Still nothing prepares himself for the cut.

He arches his back.  He credits Jim, Spock and his staff for not letting him move.

The burn…

The never ending burn…

His body is in overdrive.

The contractions are nothing like this…

The burn, the burn…

 He screams…

Then he through it all he feels a pinch in his shoulders then nothing.  

The last thing he sees are Jim’s blue eyes…


	9. Chapter 9

He awakes not with a start, but like he’s been asleep for years.  

His entire body feels heavy.  There is a dull ache to his body.  His head is swirling.

“Bones.”

He turns his head to see Jim sitting next to him.  He’s in civilian clothes.  He's sporting a five o'clock shadow that is definitely against regulations.  

He looks tired and worried.  There are black rings around his eyes that make them look more blue than normal.  

He looks like he hasn't slept in days.

“J...Jim,” he manages to make out.

It’s enough to crack a smile on Jim’s face.

“W...what…”. He starts.

Then he hears it.  The soft sound that a baby makes.  Both he and Jim turn their heads.  He makes out a bassinet near his bed.

Then it all comes back to him.

The ship got invaded.

Jim and the crew were kidnapped.

He had gone into labor.

He had a baby…

No…

Two babies…

Twins...

They had twins.

They are parents.

It seems Jim understands.  He immediately misses the warmth of Jim’s touch, but he understands Jim’s intent as he walks the few steps to the bassinet.  He watches as Jim looks down at the bassinet with a fond, soft smile.

He makes Leonard’s heart feel warm and full.

That it is worth it.  

That he would do it a million times over for _this_.

Jim kicks off the safety on the bassinet and gently rolls it over to Leonard’s side, so he can see inside.  

He feels like his heart is going to explode with love as he sees two beautiful, healthy babies in tiny onesies snuggled up against each other.  Their big blue eyes stare up at their proud fathers.  

Their tiny little fingers are interlinked together.

He doesn’t need Jim to tell him.

He knows...

“We have a son and a daughter, Jim.”  He finally manages to say.  He chokes over the word 'Jim'.

“Yeah.”

 

XXXXXXXXX

 

_Three years later…_

 

XXXXXXXXX

 

Leonard wakes to giggling and then soft voices, so soft that most humans can’t hear it.  

But Leonard can.  

He has enough experience over the years that he can hear his husband and their children’s voices no matter how quiet they are.

A smiles forms his face as he listens in on the conversation.

“Let Papa sleep.”

“Aww.”  It’s his son.

“Show Papa picture.”  It’s his daughter.  “Please.”

He wishes he can see.  The twins’ drawings always brings a smile to his face no matter how awful of a day he has, and there have been horrible days. It comes with living on a starship, being the CMO and married to the captain of said starship.

“Oh?”

He can just imagine Jim’s quizzical look.

“Daddy, Papa, Davy, me…” Jo trails off.

“And this?”  Jim prompts.

“Babies in Papa tummy.”  Davy pipes up.

The twins have a habit of finishing each other’s sentences.  Even now, they have a tight bond, one that only twins share. Of course that doesn't mean that he and Jim haven't had to break up numerous fights and wipe up their share of tears other the years.  The same as with any siblings.  

Leonard has great authority that the terrible twos with twins are so much worse than just double the trouble.  The ‘no’s, the time outs, and all the trouble two mini Kirks on a starship can cause is definitely a leading contender for the grey in his hair.

As thankful as he is that it is all the past, he wouldn’t trade any of it for anything.

Now, Jo and Davy have become bright, happy three-year-olds.  They had just celebrated in the twin’s third birthdays a few weeks ago, and Leonard feels like he’s still recovering from the after effects.

“That is why you guys got to let Papa sleep.”

“Why?”

The twin’s favorite word…

A word that Jim has frequently said is worse than any negotiations with even the most difficult of alien species.

Leonard isn’t well versed in negotiations, but he doesn’t doubt Jim in this case.

“Because the babies need to grow big and strong.”

“We big!”

“Strong!”

The twins giggle.

“Yes, you are.  And the babies need to grow big and strong too, so they can play with you guys.”

“Aww.”

“Babies come faster.”  

Jim’s laugh deepens the smile on Leonard’s face.  He pushes back his blanket to reveal his swollen abdomen.  

Growing inside of him is their newest bundles of joys…

Something neither Jim or Leonard thought would be possible after the emergency c-section that brought David into the world.

After the twin’s dramatic birth, after Leonard spent a month recovering and after they got a handle of their new lives with two infants on a starship, they finally talked.

With the twins in their crib, they had curled up on the couch to unwind.  Something they never thought would be such a luxury.  Even with both of them taking partial shifts and many pairs of spare hands, they found themselves reeling from diaper changes and feedings.

They hadn’t planned on talking, but they had popped in a holo film, one neither of them had seen.  If they had, they probably wouldn’t have watched it.

They were barely ten minutes into the film when the main character lost his wife to childbirth leaving him to raise their newborns alone.  

He felt Jim’s heart race against his skin, the slight tremble in his hands that tightened their grip around Leonard's hand and then wetness against his cheek.

He looked up to see tears on the corner of Jim’s eyes.

“Jim?”

He smiled down at Leonard, one that didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m fine, Bones.”

Of course he wasn’t fine.  Leonard knew that.  He paused the film to Jim’s weak protest.

“Jim, darlin’?”

“That could have been us, me,” he finally said.  His voice was so quiet Leonard barely heard him.

“You were hurting so bad.  Bleeding out… dying Bones.  It was the scariest day of my life.”

Leonard felt his heart drop.

Till that point, Leonard had pushed the twins’ birth aside.  Seeing them, feeding them, cuddling with them made it easy.  But Leonard knew how dire the situation had been.  That he could have easily died that day.  That it was all due to M’Benga's skills that he hadn't.

“But you didn’t,” it was all Leonard could say.  

Jim had looked at him warily.  

“You didn’t.  And it wasn’t your fault, or anyone’s fault.  We didn’t even know it was twins.  All the signs was pointing at a normal birth.”

“But…”

He kissed him.  

“We got the best crew, the best doctors, the best ship and the best captain in the universe.  Can’t bet with better odds, Jim.”

“I hate when you do that.”  There was the marking of a smile on the corner of Jim’s lips.

“What?”

“Use my words against me.”

He’s taken from his thoughts as he feels another contraction course through him.  He’s been getting them for weeks now.  He knows it’s any day now before the babies are born.

He’s ready for them too.

He hadn’t thought it was possible to get any bigger after the twin’s pregnancy, but this pregnancy has proven otherwise.  

He feels massive.  He is massive.  He thinks he’s carrying around a torpedo or a watermelon as opposed to babies.

He hears the twins again, and Jim’s attempts at keeping them occupied.  

Leonard shakes his head.  “Your older brother and sister can’t wait to meet you.”  Leonard muses.  “Neither can your daddy and papa.”  He swings his feet off the bed, toes into his slippers and wobbles into an upright position.

He grunts and takes a labored breath.  He catches his reflection in the mirror and almost winches at what is reflected back at him.

He definitely has had better days.  

He pulls on a pair of sweatpants and an old shirt then waddles outside.

“Papa!”

The twins shriek when they see him.  They run to him colliding against his knees. He can’t see them over his swollen belly but feels their warmth.

“Jo, Davy,” Jim shakes his heads aspirated.  "Careful."

Leonard puts one hand on each of their shoulders, the most he can manage these days.  

He feels the twins pull away.  “Papa, come see.”  Jo giggles before tugging him towards the couch.  

He follows and sits down.  He waits as the twins pull themselves on the couch, snuggled up on each side of him.  

Jo picks up the picture.  The one she had been talking about earlier.

“Like Papa?”

“It’s lovely, Jo, Davy.”  He kisses them each.  “Now, where to put it?”

It’s not an understatement.  Their quarters and many of the corridors of the Enterprise is covered with the kids’ artwork.  Many of the crew members have even taken to hanging the twins' drawings on their walls too.

“Babies like too.”  Jo adds.  She giggles at the ripple of their movement under his shirt.

He grimaces as he feels another course through contraction.

“No hurting Papa,” Jo chides.  She taps at the tiny pair of feet.  “You make Papa sleepy.”

“Yeah, Daddy says hard.”

Leonard runs his hands though the twin’s locks of hair.  He pushes back David’s blond locks.  He absently thinks he’ll have to take him to a barber the next time they are at a starbase.

He thinks then that he needs a haircut too.  This pregnancy seemed to have spiked some hair growth gene in him.  His hair is definitely not regulation length anymore.

“It is, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

“Why?”

Two pairs of large blue eyes look at him, each with his eyebrow raise.

“Because it gave me your guys and these little ones.”  He kisses each of them again.

“Yep, you little stinkers.”

The twins squeal as Jim comes up and picks them up.  He spins them around like airplanes.

“We no stink!”

“Papa say we smell like angels.”

“Yeah.”

“Angels with crooked holos and growling tummies.”  Jim rubs his face against the twins’ cheeks causing them giggle.

“Daddy!”

Jim sets them down.  “Go put on your shoes, so we can get dinner.”  The twins scamper off leaving Jim to attend to Leonard.  

He helps him up.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay.”  Leonard grimaces as he feels another contraction.

_Damn..._

“Bones?”

“It’s…”

He wants to say it’s nothing.  That Jim is imagining things.  But he knows how Jim feels.  

So instead he tells him the truth.

“Contractions.”

“Contractions?”  He sees Jim glance around the room and finally land on where they have their bags packed for this exact moment.

He wants to say it's Braxton Hicks when suddenly he feels that all too familiar gush of water pour from between his legs.  He's thankful he at least isn't still on the couch.

He looks at Jim how is looking at him with big eyes.

“I guess the babies want to come sooner than we thought.”

“I… we…”

Leonard sets his hand on Jim's should.  “It’ll be fine.”

“Daddy?  Papa?”

They turn to see the twins standing at the doorway.

“Uh oh,  Papa had accident.”

“No silly,” Davy nudges his sister.  “Babies coming.”

Leonard doesn’t even know how his son could possibly know that.  He just says ‘yes’ as Jo’s eyes widen to match her daddy’s.  

He rolls his eyes and takes the twins’ hands.  He had crawled through Jefferies’ tubes the last time he did.  He's hungry, and damn if this is going to stop him from getting food to fill his belly.

He feels Jim watching him like a hawk throughout dinner.  

And once the twins babbled out, ‘the babies are coming’, which of course forced Leonard to admit he is in labor but ‘it’s fine’ quickly before anyone can grab his comm.  It isn't enough to stop Jim’s entire command crew from watching him like a hawk afterwards.

Which damn it…

It is ridiculous because babies take forever to be born.  It's completely normal, and he’s definitely not spending six plus hours strapped to a biobed.

Besides this time they are completely prepared.

He’s a doctor.

He knows the risks, and his med team is completely prepared to handle the sitation.  

With promises that they will wake them up if the babies are born before alpha shift, they go back to their quarters.  Because the twins are three, they have lost interest already in the coming of their siblings.  

They are happy enough to play with their toys.  

Unlike their daddy, who thrusts out his own medical tricorder at him…

Like he's the doctor in the relationship or something.

Leonard rolls his eyes but knows enough not to say anything. His scans himself.  The readings however stun him…

“Bones?”

He doesn’t say anything but instead intertwines his fingers with Jim's.  He squeezes.  Jim nods, gathers up the kids, and they make it to med bay in under ten minutes.

By the end of the hour, he finds himself on the birthing chair with M’Benga between his legs.

“Ready, doc?”

He looks up at Jim supporting him from behind.  His hands wrapped protectively over Leonard's swollen abdomen.  He looks at Jo and Davy who are excitedly each clutching one of his legs…

He almost doesn’t register the pain…

The burning sensation as their baby’s head stretches him out.

The pain coming from the contraction they have been waiting for.

"Ready," he answers.

Because he is.  He is ready to start the next phase of their lives as a family of six.  

With that thought, Leonard bears down.

_FIN_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, this fic comes to a close. I hope you all enjoyed it. It was definitely fun to write.
> 
> Thank you all for coming along for the ride.
> 
> ^.^


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